A Nightmare Dreary
by Ithil Aerlinn
Summary: A Pagan Zombie Fairy Tale set in a world of Nightmares. A girl is sent away to a strange land for being a witch. Thinking herself alone, she is surprised by our favorite Dark Trickster, Loki. Together they must conquer the demons of this world as well as their own. Mythology, gore, paganism and my Infamous M rating for smut and possible BDSM.
1. Chapter 1: The Girl

_I believe in people lying_

_I believe in people dying_

_I believe in people flying_

_I believe in people crying_

_Keep living_

_Keep living…_

_(Lyrics from the song EXCESS by Tricky)_

Once upon a stitch in time, there lived a young girl that people whispered about behind closed doors, and told stories about in the dark of night. In their small mountain town, hidden deep in the woods far from frozen dinners, department stores, and the supreme ruling lust for the material, superstition and Olde Tyme religion still ran deep in the blood of the townspeople. Wives tales were taken as truth, all things were seen as a 'sign', black cats were avoided, and anyone who showed a preference for "difference" was shunned. This was why secrets and rumors abounded about the girl: how she could see things that others could not, seemed to know what animals were thinking, and when she was hurt she healed very quickly. The girl seemed to know about plants and what herbs helped which ailments just from instinct, and she could use the rocks around her…they said. The creatures of the farm and of the woods were drawn to her, because she could talk to them…they said. And in the small town of Sayvelm, she was thought to be a witch…and thusly she was feared.

In truth, the girl _was_ special, and she was not like others. Her grandmother, who had passed away when she was but a toddler, had been a healer, and not the kind who had gone to school for years to get a PhD. The old woman was feared, but respected for her ability to restore good health to even the folks that the city Doctors had given up on. Yet all her vast knowledge of healing with plants and herbs and crystals was not enough to cast a ring of protection around her grand daughter, from the suspicious glances of others. When the old woman crossed over, the girls parents kept her safe from the accusing glares and name calling. They kept her happy and blissfully unaware.

For people like to believe what they wanted to believe, and leave the facts alone. And so they did.

The girls knowledge of healing came from books that she read including journals left to her by her grandmother. At a young age she had learned to read, and from then on she voraciously tore through tomes like they were nothing more than grade school readers. She had a natural affinity for the creatures of the world and could communicate with them on a base mammalian level because she _empathized_ with them. It was not that she understood their languages, and heard them as she would hear any other person, but because she watched and listened.

People like to talk, and so talk they did.

The girl did not see things that others could not because she was psychic, but because she was very _perceptive_, more so than the average person, and with that perception came _intuition_. She was extremely intelligent, and believed in the mystical things, the powers of auras and colors and nature. In this way she was a magical child, just not the kind that the townspeople believed her to be. They saw her as the witches that stories of old portrayed, the kind that only existed in the imagination. The girl _did not _have a long wart covered nose, nor did fire shoot from her fingers. She _did not _wear a pointed black hat and buckled shoes nor ride a straw broom through the night sky cackling to the heavens.

She _did_ have haunting pale gray eyes that while beautiful to some, were terrifying to others. She _did _like to lay under the full moon light, watching the Luna moths as they flitted through the air, and listening to the hoot owls talk to each other in the woods. She _did _enjoy good music around a bonfire, laughing with her parents, and making up songs to sing to the skies.

She was different and that did not bode well with the villagers.

One a dismal night in March all things came to a stop for the girl. The Spring had been unseasonably wet, and there was a late snow on the ground. The girls parents were on their way home from shopping when their ancient pick-up hit a patch of slush and slid off of the Winter Bridge, where they were lost to the raging waters of the dark swollen creek rushing underneath.

The town constable showed up at the front door of the once happy cottage nestled on the edge of the woods. Her Aunt answered the door, and a mere three minutes later, the child's world fell apart. Grief crushed down on her like the weight of twenty boulders and for a long agonizing moment she forgot how to breathe. As her Aunt placed comforting arms around her to hold her when the tears came, the girl shoved her away and ran out into the freezing dark. She fled blindly into the dark woods, sobbing loudly, running as far as she could until a stitch in her side brought her crashing to her knees at the foot of a large tree. She gasped for breath, her chest hitching as the mournful wails echoed in the hills. That was were she cried until her small frame could take no more, and she fell into a dreamless sleep. That was where they found her in the early hours of dawn, curled up in a fetal ball on the forest floor.

Her Aunt had expected to find her dead, frozen to death or at the bottom of a ravine. But what she and the others found, was far more baffling. The girl lay under a tree, with a large jet black dog that no one had ever seen before. The dog was curled around her, keeping her slight frame from freezing in the chilling temperatures with the fur and heat from his body. As the townspeople approached, the dogs hackles stood up, and just for a moment his emerald green eyes seemed to shine with a hellish light. He growled low in his throat, showing white sharp fangs.

A lone man stepped forward and un-shouldered his rifle. "Dog's mad," he said.

"That's no dog!" someone else cried out. "Didn't ya see his eyes a glowin'? I will argue with any of ya that can tell me that isn't something straight from the pits of Hell!"

"It's her familiar!" another voice shouted.

The cries of "Witch!" and "Demon!" rang out into the forest, spooking bird and beast alike. A flock of crows, startled by the noise, arose from their perch in a nearby Ash tree and took to the sky, cawing and squawking. The towns people called it a sign.

The girl awoke to the den, the cold replacing the warmth of her furry companion. She rubbed her silver eyes as the sounds of the people shouting, crows screaming, and the dog snarling and backing away into the woods pounded in her ears. The man with the rifle had raised it again and aimed at the dog's heart.

"Stop!" she screamed, throwing herself at him. The shot when wild and merely took a small amount of skin and fur off of the dog's back. He ran into the woods away from the cruel people, and disappeared among the trees and brush.

There was no discussion as the people took the girl away. Her Aunt merely hung her head in cowardice, not fighting with the others who called the girl such horrible names and deemed her a product of _Satan_…a creature the girl did not even believe in. They placed her in an asylum in a large neighboring town, where she was kept nearly catatonic, the drugs inducing strange visions and vivid dark dreams...until one day, three years later….when she awoke.

The smell of pine and dirt was the first thing that registered to her senses. The next was the sound of birds in the trees and insects scuttling along the ground. The lack of light and a cool dampness began to seep into her skin, and she looked skyward seeing a dense veiling of low lying storm clouds. The air was thick. One of the birds screamed overhead, and she whipped her head around in time to see a strange two headed creature swooping down toward her. She threw up her arm and rolled away.

Everything she encountered here was odd, like nothing she had ever known before. The plants, the animals, even the air she was breathing seemed other worldly. As the day ebbed, the girl began to look for a place to sleep, a place away from all this strangeness.

It was nearly dark when she found it. The remains of an old stone cottage up on a brambly hillside. The roof was sagging, the door was nearly destroyed and hanging from rusted hinges. But there were heavy wooden shutters on the windows, and a dust covered table in the middle of the room. She heaved with all the might in her young body, and managed to turn the table on its end and shove it against the door frame. The ancient chairs broke in her hands when she tried to move them, and finding matches in a cupboard on the wall, she used them to start a fire in the round stone hearth. The smell from the moldy wood was horrid, but at least she finally was beginning to feel warm again.

There was a musty cot in one corner of the room. The girl shook out the blankets from it, silently willing any spiders to disappear, and finding none, she made a bed in front of the fire. Her heavy lids were just easing shut when she heard something at the makeshift door. A scratching…a low moan…

The shutters were drawn and latched, and she was too frightened to open one to see what was out there. More groans came from behind the cottage, and then a vicious growl and the table shuddered in the doorway. She shrieked, looking wildly around the room for something else to brace against the table. The one room building was very sparse, but a heavy looking cabinet sat to the left of the doorway. She pushed against it, but it wouldn't budge. The table shuddered again as something shoved against it, and the moans and growls intensified. Pure adrenaline surged through her body, and with the urging of her shoulder, the cabinet began to move. Painfully slow, she eased the cabinet, its legs scraping through the dust motes on a floor that had been unused for twenty years or more….and as she finally pushed the wooden beast home, the door of the cabinet popped open, and out fell a book.

The doorframe rattled as whatever was outside slammed into the table again and again. A putrid stench had found its way into the room, a smell like decaying flesh and rotten innards. The girl bent to retrieve the book, gagging at the odor of death long past, and then fled to the fireside, clutching the tome against her heaving chest. Her breath hitched, sobs broke free, as the stench at her door began to recede along with the moaning.

Nails or claws scratched against the shutters and what was left of the window glass, making an ear piercing noise akin to fingernails on a chalk board. She dropped the book to the floor and covered her ears, willing the noise to stop, silently casting protection around herself, tears streaming down her cheeks. She fell to the floor, back on her blanket in front of the putrid fire, exhausted, when finally sleep took her into its dark dreamless embrace.

The cold stone floor seeping its fingers into her bones stirred her awake. The fire had long since died, the sounds of the night gone. A dreary light seeped in through cracks in the stonework and in the shutters, telling her that it was day again. Hunger surged through her belly like a whip crack, and her mind traveled back to the book. It was bound in a strange wrinkled and age cracked leather, the pages a yellowed parchment. The words were written in pen and ink. It was the first line on the first page that grasped her attention : "This is a strange land, these Dark Lands. I shall call it the **_Other World_**, since I know not how I arrived to be here, or where here is exactly. I do know this, beware the night, as the dead are restless….and they are hungry."

The gnawing pain in her belly was forgotten. The girl sat back against the hearth, horrified, and proceeded to read what appeared to be a journal. She read with rapt attention until once again night claimed the land, and she sat in the dark, no fire, no food, waiting cross legged in the middle of the floor with her new found knowledge, for the dead to rise and walk the Dark Lands in search of precious life to destroy.

In search of her.

**A/N: Next Chapter is all Loki..I promise ;)**


	2. Chapter 2: The Trickster

_I believe in people walking_

_I believe in people talking_

_I believe in people breathing_

_I believe in people being_

_Keep living_

_-Lyrics from "Excess" by Tricky_

The door to the stone building was black as fine ebony, the pale fingers that pushed it open stood out like veins of quartz. No sunlight streamed in from the outside world…it seemed that there was never any sunlight here. No pure golden beams for this forgotten soul left to wander this realm in the dimness of half-light.

He had been a prisoner for what seemed like a lifetime.

Once he had been a Prince of a vast city made of marble and gold. He had led a privileged lifestyle, with all he lusted after at his devilish finger tips…and lust he did. Riches of the kingdom kept he and his family wrapped in the finest leathers, the best textiles that could be found in all the Nine Realms. The most succulent fruits made the wines that passed his ruddy lips…the richest honey leant its flavor to his mead. He had seen many a young nubile maiden in his bed, beautiful and willing creatures that would do anything he asked to walk arm in arm with a royal. And oh, how he thrilled in their bodies…but as any who has it all, he grew bored, and his tastes changed. Soon the beauties stopped coming to him…willingly.

Once he had been a magician, skilled in the ancient art of deception and the craft of the old ones, able to create any reality he chose. But the reality that had been revealed to him by the man he thought his father, the _ALLFATHER_, was not to his liking. It had burned him to know that his life had been a deception in and of itself. It felt as if his heart had bled a vile blackness when he found out what he really was. It had led to a fight, and a fall.

Once he had rode a flying chariot, his golden horned helm glinting in the sun as his monstrous army laid waste to a great city of Midgardians. Covered in the glorious armor of Asgard, he had taken his anger at the false father, and his disgust at the real one, his loathing of his brother the Golden Son of Odin, all out on Earth and its mightiest heroes. And he had failed.

He was taken away, called a _war_ _criminal_, a _terrorist_….called _Evil_ and a _Monster_. These latter two were things he already knew about himself, things he had found out the minute that he had held the Tesseract and felt the coldness of his origin pouring out of him. Midgard kept him for a time, imprisoning him within their facilities, their technology dampening his magic. Finally when the mortals had agreed to let him go, to be tried in the courts of Asgard, his false brother had returned him to the golden city….and Odin had welcomed Thor home with open arms. For his raven haired Jotun son he had only harsh words and more pain. For a time he felt as if he were simply rotting away on Asgard, his sentence one of public humiliations, floggings so severe that they left scars upon his ivory skin, and imprisonment in a crystal clear cage until he realized the error of his ways. The sentencing was swift and to him it seemed rather obscenely venomous.

One strangely fate filled day, Odin and Thor had come to see him. "Do you have anything to say for your crimes, Loki? " Odin's great voice had boomed. "Perhaps a regret or two, that you would share? "

Loki sneered, his rage not quelled; only incensed by the men before him. "I do, _Father,_ "he spat. "I regret not simply destroying Midgard instead of trying to rule it! Those pathetic creatures are not deserving of the rule that I would have brought upon them! "

Thor sighed and looked down to the floor.

Odin was grim. "This is unfortunate, Loki. A terrible tragedy…the heart of your poor mother-"

"She is not _my_ mother! " Loki screamed in a voice that was no longer completely sane. "Yet I loved her despite that, despite all your _lies_ _and treachery_, Old Man! She was always willing to show me affection, even when you were pushing me, pressuring me to be as Thor, your _true _heir! Speak not of _my _mother! "

Odin's face betrayed no emotion. He swiftly turned on his heal, his cape swirling around him as he exited the room.

"Do not do this, Loki, "Thor begged. "Do you not see the reasoning in this punishment? How can you be fit to lead when you think yourself above all others? That is not leadership. "

"That _is_ the mark of a king, you fool! "Loki snarled. "A king rules with an iron fist, he does not give in to sentiment…like _you _and your sentiment for the Midgardian whore."

Thor's azure eyes flashed a warning. "_You_ are the fool, Loki. " He maneuvered out of the room, a perfect imitation of his father. Loki was once again left alone, and enraged. He paced the floor of his cage screeching obscenities like a harpy, until he was certain he was wearing a groove in the floor and simply slumped into a corner exhausted, falling into a fret full sleep.

When he awoke, the prison was gone. Asgard was gone. In place of the shining city in the clouds, the city of glistening light was a dark dim landscape that mirrored Midgard….but was not. Ominous clouds loomed over the heads of alien birds and animals, chittering and squealing in the trees and dense grasses.

It would appear that once again he had fallen.

For a short while, his days were spent exploring his strange new prison. Always there appeared no pure light piercing through the atmosphere of this world. The plants grew low and shrubby, their stalks woody, their leaves a gray green. The trees were huge, stretching up into the dim light, their trunks gnarled and nasty, many covered in long thorns. The animals that he encountered were nothing he had ever seen before. Two headed birds screamed at him from the thorn trees, their crooked sharp beaks letting loose a most awful din. Often they were picking away at the carcass of something smaller, that they had skewered on the thorns. He had witnessed it enough times to make him avert his gaze anytime he heard the wretched beasts screeching. They would swoop down and scoop up what he supposed was a rabbit or mouse in their talons, fly up into the air, and then begin a spiraling descent toward the trees, letting loose of their pray. It would hurtle end over end into the waiting branches, the thorns almost seeming to reach hungrily to catch it…as if the tree were sentient. Almost.

After witnessing the acts of the flora and fauna of this odd place it seemed he was now forced to call home, Loki made a decision to stay in at night. Though he was a skilled warrior, he reasoned that it would be folly to tread upon these grounds after the sun_, (if the dingy ball hidden in the sky could be called that)_, had lain to rest. If the denizens of the day were so horrid, he could only imagine what night would bring.

Loki had found with delight that he had been returned some of his magic, and he thanked the ancients for that huge miracle. Though he could not for the life of him figure out how to use his powers to transport himself anywhere off this horrid rock, he used it to create a fortress to live in, carved right from the dull dark rock that he stood upon. His abode was cold, it had the liveliness of an abandoned cave…and yet it did not suit him ill. It mirrored his broken and bitter heart, a heart that no manner of magic could warm. Even though it lacked the comforts of home, a fire burned in the hearth, and he had a bed to sleep in, pulled straight from the woodlands.

He was benefit of being able to turn the plants he picked into edible food and drink with magic, and did not have to hunt down the denizens of the woods, or drink from the mucky pools that he found. Even what he supposed was to be deer in this world were putrid. Their musky rotten scent was enough to put anyone off, and their faces bordered on horrific. Their shaggy green-gray hair hung from them in disgusting clumps as if they were in a perpetual molt of mold. They ran on long scaly legs, their tails lifting to reveal a flash of yellow, to warn their brethren of the intruder, their heads held high. Great gray antlers sat atop the dome of their skull, furless and deeply browed. When they bellowed, it sounded as if they were being drowned, a wretched gurgling bugling.

He avoided them as much as possible.

Then came the day that Loki strayed farther than usual from home. As the brackish dusk faded into dark, he began to feel a bit unnerved. Like an interloper that had just been discovered…and in a way, he certainly was.

The woods that he had been traveling through quite suddenly ran out, and Loki found himself in a clearing. Ahead of him were ruins. He had seen something very much like it in his travels on Midgard, the humans called it _Stonehenge_. Massive boulders carved into humanesque shapes loomed in the darkness. There was something ethereal and oddly feminine about them that drew him toward the circle and as his feet past between the first stones, the air around him began to crackle with a brackish energy that made his skin crawl. He thought that for a moment he heard soft laughter, and the skin of his chest began to grow cold and tingle. Loki held up a hand, prepared to voice a short incantation that would light up the darkness, when a new louder sound made him halt and spin on his heel.

The noise came again, a slippery wet sound like two rotten fruit peels being rubbed together. Loki turned again and sounds came from all around. A mushy sodden din, in tandem with dry brittle crunching…He spun, breathing out words in Asgardian, (words that sounded to the great stones of the circle to be very much like ancient Norse), and the incantation emerged from his mouth, a silvery smoke that stroked at the air and grew into a light around him. For a moment Loki swore that he saw the boulders gyrate and heard them sigh in ecstasy as the air crackled…and his light fizzled out. Glaring at the darkness, he spoke again, louder, and once more his magic winked out. The god cursed under his breath, his teeth bared in a snarl.

A foul stench had begun to waft into the circle of stones. Furrowing his otherwise porcelain brow, Loki took a deep breath, gathered all the energy he could muster, and shouted the words once more…

And nearly lost his ability for coherent thought.

As a bubble of light seemed to ooze from his very pores and permeate the air, so did the moans of many rotting throats. Loki knew something was there, someone...but to be surrounded by so many without knowing was unknown to him. People were coming toward him from all sides…people who obviously suffered from some horrid disease that had made the flesh begin to droop and slip from their very bones. Some teetered on unsteady legs and staggered, barely regaining their footing before continuing on toward him, some drug themselves across the leaf littered forest floor by their gnarled fingers leaving parts of themselves upon the grass. There were women and men, all glaring at him with demonic eyes…but the worst, the worst were the ones that seemed to stare at him from dripping eyeless sockets. It made him think of Odin…and he bared his teeth again.

"Back you foul creatures and speak your peace! What business have you with me?" Loki shouted.

For a moment the mob seemed to be caught off guard, and they all paused for a brief second, a collective "Aahh," going up from their gaping maws. But just as soon as they had stopped, they began to close him in again. Taking a step back, Loki murmured and flicked his hand in the air, sending a hex toward the mob, with little effect. A few of the people staggered backward, as if caught in a gale of wind, and once again continued toward him. He cast another curse and another, but they did little good, and so he shouted at them, and snatched a worn branch up from the ground. Twirling it in the air and pushing all his magic into it, the gnarled bark became a polished shining war staff. It felt good to hold it, he realized, as it had been ages since he had held a weapon and faced off with those who wished only to harm him…

There was a sudden whishing sound and a _THUNK_, and one of the crazed lunatics went down with a strangled sigh, an arrow protruding from the back of his head. Another swish and _THUD_, and black ichor sprayed across the rocks. Loki narrowed his eyes, trying to see who was picking off these foul smelling gits, when a cold leathery hand came down on his shoulder. With no thought, the god swung around, lopping the head off the woman intruding upon his space with one go. The group of people collectively groaned again as someone sprang out of the darkness and landed on top of one of the massive stones.

"Stay in the middle of this cursed Circle if you want to live!" a scratchy voice cried out above his head. "And keep swinging that stick of yours at their heads! Always aim for the crown of the head!"

Loki snarled a high brow lip at the interloper, but heeded the advice given just the same. The figure was clothed in dark leathers, his head cloaked in a black hood. He sprang easily from boulder to boulder, picking off the deranged moaning and occasionally growling people one by one, and when all the arrows seemed to be gone, he jumped to the ground beside Loki, unsheathed a sword, and began to effortlessly spin this way and that, taking down men and women with ease. They slashed through bodies that were much too soft, sliced necks that gave way with a sickening squelching sound. They plunged their blades into eye sockets which held only gristle where tendons should be, and pierced foreheads with hardly any force at all. One by one, these putrid people, made crazy with some sickness that he had never before seen, went down…until the only two left were covered in gore and breathing heavily.

Loki stood panting, his back to the man who had come to his aid. A muffled voice quietly spoke. "We must go, there will be more coming."

"More?" The god spat. "Are they all this deranged and diseased?" He fanned his hand in front of his face, hoping for fresh air that did not come.

"There are always more," was the reply. "Do you have a house near here? A cottage, perhaps?"

Loki snorted vainly. "My fortress is a good piece from here, but we can reach it before dawn."

It was the interlopers turn to snort. "_Fool! _You strayed that far? You will never make it home alive. Follow me."

Loki bristled at the word. Thor had called him a fool one too many times. "I will do no such thing."

The figure picked a rough wool cloak off of the ground and donned it, shrugging. "So be it, but you will be as they are before morning." He kicked at one of the fallen with the toe of a well worn boot. "I am going home, where it is safe. You are lucky that I had decided to do a little night hunting, or you would be undead right now." He began to walk away. "The invite still stands. You may come with me if you wish to live. If not…it was nice fighting along side another with blood still pumping through their veins! Farewell!"

Loki arched an eyebrow and looked around at the bodies strewn inside the stone circle. "Undead?" he said softly to himself. He glanced back up at the retreating warrior…and began to follow.


	3. Chapter 3: The Witch

**A/N: **_**Min kjaere**_** Translates to: My Dear. It is Norwegian, the closest thing to Old Norse that I could find. I am taking this Loki from Movieverse as well as mythos. **

_Lift me up above this_

_The flames and the ashes_

_Lift me up and help me to fly away_

_Lift me up above this_

_The broken, the empty_

_Lift me up and help me to fly away._

_Lift me up._

_-__**Lyrics from **__**Lift me up**__** by Five Finger Death Punch**_

The stone cottage was small, but the size lent to the comfort of the space. It felt…cozy. Loki scanned the room as a kettle of tea began to heat on the hearth fire of a rounded rock fireplace. He noted the heavy reinforced shutters on the windows, the runes and other symbols burned into the solid wooden door.

_Protection. _He reasoned that the owner of this place knew some degree of hedge magic and was making sure that nothing got in. With those _people_ out there in packs, frothing at the mouths like rabid wolves and smelling of rot, he did not blame the man in the least. The thought of them made him cringe the slightest bit, and so he looked at his surroundings some more in hopes of settling his mind on friendlier tidings.

Herbs and odd plants hung from the ceiling, drying in clumps. Several live plants grew in clay pots on the polished stone floor. There was a warm smell, some kind of foreign spice permeating the air, and all the well worn wood in the room was carved with more symbols, as well as pictations of trees and the phases of the moon. Everything radiated warmth. Loki soon found himself becoming drowsy in the overstuffed chair he occupied, so he stood and walked the walls, running his fingers over the carvings.

He was tracing the outer edges of an intricate healing hand, when the wooden blind in the corner slid back. As he turned slowly on his heel to ask about the interesting carving, he was shocked into quiet reverence of the creature before him.

The warrior cloaked in gore covered leathers and wool had gone behind the blind and a _woman _had emerged, drying her long blue black hair with a towel. She was of some height, strong and agile, dark lashes framing pale eyes, full rosy lips curving in a warm smile at him…the swell of ample bosom rising and falling with her breath… He stifled a gasp. A soft buckskin tunic covered her to her thighs, and more symbology decorated the bodice. Loki had the strange feeling that he _recognized_ her, and perhaps this were all some sort of dream concocted by this sorceress, when she stepped in front of the firelight. His heart, deprived of female contact for far too long, skipped a beat. Loki swallowed dryly, watching as the light reflected off of her, the skin of her chest glowing warm as fresh honey. It had been ages since a woman had graced his presence, and after coming to this forsaken land, he had believed himself to walk alone for all eternity…

She cleared her throat. "I've left you a fresh bowl of water and a towel, if you wish to clean up," She motioned toward the blind.

Loki blinked several times. "I did not think you a woman," he murmured. His finger still languidly traced the smooth lines upon the wood.

She laughed easily. "Go wash up while I make us something warm to drink. I need to get this rasp out of my throat, and the chill from my bones." She sat two teacups on the table and a bowl of something that looked to be honey.

Loki shivered.

She cocked a questioning eyebrow at him, and then set to her task, a slight smile curving her full lips. He stood but for a moment only lingered, watching her body move beneath the suede. Curvaceous hips caused the material to swish around her as if she wore the finest Asgardian silk. Long legs carried her across the floor...and as he watched her something primal stirred deep within him. Loki was surprised she had trusted him, a woman out here alone, and him a stranger in this treacherous land. But watching her thick well toned thighs move and stretch, he had a feeling that she could put up a hell of a fight with or without her bow.

Finally, the god turned away from the sight of this most interesting creature and disappeared behind the blind. A basin of clean water awaited him, and he splashed his face, rubbing hard at his skin. It had been ages since he had felt such a deep grinding urge….

Loki squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath and banished the devilish thoughts from his mind by wondering about the mob in the clearing. His eyes traveled down, and upon seeing the ichor of diseased blood upon his leathers, he grunted in dismay. The lithe strong body was stripped quickly, and scrubbed harshly to remove any remnants of the foul smelling gits. The leathers were a mess, and Loki ran his tingling fingers across the clothing softly speaking an incantation. They shined like new.

Each successive use of magic wore on him, and Loki knew this day was done for his spells. He had to rest, to recover from the onslaught of hexes he had thrown at the lunatics…hexes that had not worked at all. Only physical violence had stopped them. Loki was mulling this over while he tied the laces of his breeches, when the sounds began to assault his ears again….low moans and soft gurgling cries came from outside the cottage, and then stopped almost as abruptly as they had begun. Loki furrowed his brow and pressed an ear against the wood of the wall, listening.

There was a quiet scratching, almost like a mouse in the walls, and he relaxed a bit, telling himself that he had only imagined those noises…perhaps it was the wind through the trees across the valley. He pressed his forehead to the wall, taking a steadying breath and then laughed at his own unease. There came a horrendous battering against the outside wall, followed by an outraged snarling. Loki sprang back with a startled shout, knocking into the blind and whirling around, eyes wild…stopping as he came face to face with her, and the most haunting eyes he had ever seen.

The woman swore softly, placing a hand on his bare shoulder to steady him. The inhuman sounds came again, this time at the door.

"Get into the middle of the room," she whispered.

Loki complied just as something huge plowed into the door. The heavy wood shuddered in its frame, and the hinges groaned, but held fast. "What makes such noises?" He hissed.

The woman did not answer. She had grabbed a small bundle, wrapped in gauze, and lit it aflame. Saying something that he could not quite make out, she tossed it to the floor, spat on it, and then smashed it with the heel of her bare foot. Indigo beams radiated out from under her toes and etched a pentacle around them, before beginning a luminous spiral across the stones and licking up the walls of the cabin. There was a mighty roar of annoyance…and quite possibly pain, as the walls began to pulse with vibrance. A deep growling could be heard throughout the house as the thing outside charged around and around the structure. Loki was reminded for all the world of the Hulk, growling and coming at him…tossing him like a doll…

The woman lightly touched Loki's arm, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. "It may get tad bumpy, but the magic will hold. Don't worry, I've got you."

Loki looked at her with his mouth once again agape, stuck on the last words she had spoken. _I've got you._

The walls shook, as the beast outside screeched and barreled around the cottage, its enraged den reverberating through the house. It was everywhere at once. Loki did not realize it, but he was shaking, and the woman's grip upon him tightened. The cottage seemed to bow in on itself for a brief moment, as if made of rubber. She murmured, and the walls glowed brighter, a shade of violet, and a pained inhuman scream rattled the shutters on the windows. The basin fell over behind the screen; the fire glowed brighter in the fireplace, bottles rattled in the cupboard. The tea kettle whistled. Smooth spirals of comfort were being etched softly across the scarred skin of his back. Loki followed the sounds with his eyes…and then everything was still. A raspy panting could be heard at the front door.

"On with you!" she shouted. "There is nothing for you here but pain!"

One final ear splitting screech, and the underbrush began to crunch under enormous feet, tree limbs snapped as the thing loped away. She exhaled deeply. The glowing of the floor and walls became fainter until finally it was gone completely.

They stood still in the middle of the room for a time. Loki became aware of her hand upon his back tracing across his skin, aware that he was shivering in the half light of the room. He took a deep shaky breath thinking that perhaps he would just stay right here in this moment, somewhere between terrified and enthralled by her touch. Finally he turned toward her. She nodded and smiled, and with a final squeeze, she removed her hand and took the tea kettle from the fire.

Quietly she mumbled to herself. "Flaxen root. I must remember to go forage for that tomorrow. He knows you are here, and he is none too happy about it."

"Who?" Loki whispered. His brain was practically screaming at him. _What in the Hell had Odin done?! Am I meant to die here? _

"He is only known as The Keeper." She motioned to the chair he had nearly fallen asleep in upon arriving. "Sit, have some tea. There will be plenty of time for talk later. You've had quite a shock tonight, and I will wager that you haven't been here long. Just rest and drink deep."

Loki fell into the chair, letting the softness of the cushions sink in around him. The woman handed him a steaming cup of herbal tea, and he drank greedily, feeling the warmth sink into him again. He had not even realized how much the last few moments had chilled him to the core, and he pulled on his green tunic, shivering slightly.

"That is the effect he has," she said, watching him shudder. "The Keeper can make the strongest man feel weak." She went to the bed and brought him a woolen blanket. For a moment his pride resurfaced, and he vainly thought to protest, to tell her that he was no man…but better sense kept him from it. She seemed to sense this as he reached for the blanket.

"So tell me, Stranger, who were you before you came to this place?" She asked, refilling his cup. "I know it is an odd question, but this Hell changes people. We are not who we were before…" she paused and looked into her tea, swirling the cup around in her hand. She looked back up at him, her eyes asking him to understand. "No one is born here. We just end up here."

He nodded, remembering waking up in these disturbing lands. "I was a Prince who should have been crowned a King," Loki said, looking into her eyes for the first time. The irises were pale grey, surrounded by an outer ring the color of steel, and they almost appeared to shine silver. Set against her dark hair, they were haunting. He quickly looked away.

The woman laughed softly again, a musical sound, and Loki found himself smiling in spite of himself. "You find me amusing?" He arched a refined eyebrow at her.

"It's my eyes, isn't it?" she smiled. "Oh, it's alright, I know. My grandmother called them Spirit Eyes. She said that anyone with silver eyes was automatically connected to the realm of spirit, the world of the dead…" The woman broke off and took a sip of tea. Almost automatically the rasp in her voice cleared, and a voice as melodic as her laughter replaced it. "She told me that some may find my eyes unnerving, but not to worry. It would be part of my charms." She winked.

"My dear, she was an intelligent woman, for you are full of charm. Now tell me, who were you before you came here?" Loki asked, tearing the subject away from her stare. He longed to tell her that he did not find her eyes hard to look at, rather the very opposite…there was magic in them, and it stirred that primal part of him again.

"A child."

Her answer shocked him, and his eyebrows shot up. "You grew up… _here_?"

The woman nodded. "Ai. I was the granddaughter of a healer. She showed me all the old ways, and that's why I am here." Her face darkened. "When I was but a small child, I lost everyone close to me. I ran away into the snowy woods and would have died alone, but a great black dog saved me. He kept me warm with his body, and when the townspeople found me, they claimed I was a witch, and the dog my familiar. He ran away before he could be killed…I so would have liked to have thanked him for saving my life that night. As maddening as this world is, I find myself glad to be alive in it. Isn't that sad?"

Loki's eyes had widened, but she didn't notice lost as she was in memory.

Taking another sip of her tea, she continued. "I woke here, all alone, in the Other World. It is ironic that upon coming here, I actually _did_ learn magic. I am now what is considered in my world to be a Green Witch," she sighed, her eyes clouding. "I found this cottage, and a book that taught me all I needed to know to survive here. To keep the Undead at bay-"

"You keep saying Undead?" Loki interrupted. "And you mean to tell me that you grew up in this wretched place all alone? How did you come to be here? How did you thrive?"

She chuckled and sipped her tea. "So many questions. Let's see…Yes, I have spent the last seventeen years here, alone. I have no recollection of how I got here. I fell asleep, I woke, and I was here. That is all I know about that."

"Was the same for me," Loki said. "And these Undead you speak of? The diseased people that meant to bring us harm?"

She shook her dark head, swallowing. "Not diseased, my friend. They are _dead_."

He snorted. "Dead? But they walk, they groan, they _bite_…"

"Hence _Undead_," she interrupted. "They are devoid of life. No heart beats in their chests, no fresh blood flows through their veins. The spark of life that keeps us all going is gone, and yet they _move_ and attack at will. They are always hungry and always trying to find fresh meat to gorge on."

Loki looked disgusted. "How do you know this to be fact?"

She arched a black eyebrow at him. "I have lived here for most of my life. And because I have this." She went to a cupboard and pulled out a wrinkled leather bound book, tossing it on the table in front of him. "You asked how I thrived…this is the means to that. I found this book when I came here. It has been my saving grace, as it gave me all the information that I needed to live in this Hell."

"How-"

"Because it was written by a man named Stephan, who ended up here much the same way you and I did. He lived here, and presumably died here, and everything he learned, he wrote about in this journal. Every incantation that could keep me alive, every plant that could be utilized, every animal that could be killed and eaten and _how _to kill them, how to build the bow that I use, every creature who inhabited this rock, and every ancient place that was to be used or feared or avoided."

"The circle of stones," Loki murmured.

She nodded. "The Keeper is drawn by dark energy, dark thoughts." For a moment the man in front of her visibly tensed. "I would imagine," she continued, "that he was brought here by the dark energy inside the Circle. A demon lives there, one that can only be seen or spoken too when the moon is full. She is a Succubus according to Stephan's journal." She paused, looking troubled. "I am assuming when you walked into the circle she got quite…excited. There is a shortage of living men in these parts."

Loki rubbed at his forehead, choosing to ignore what she was insinuating. "And that summoned The Keeper." He was having a bit of trouble letting all this sink in.

The woman nodded. "Yes, I believe so. He probably tracked us back here."

"Have you ever seen him?"

She shuddered. "Yes, once. But he is gone now; the magic will keep him away for some time. It hurts him. I don't wish to discuss him further."

Loki sipped his tea, silently agreeing that he did not wish to learn more about this forsaken place tonight. His mind had been ripped apart enough for one evening.

"This is quite good," he smiled, tilting his cup.

"Thank you," she said softly, returning his smile. For the first time since they had met, she looked reserved, perhaps even bashful. "It's an herb that grows here which quite mirrors the chamomile that we have back home. The sweetener actually _is_ honey; there are bees here that are enormous. Quite frightening actually, but if one covers themselves in that putrid mud that is everywhere in the swamps, then they seem to not notice when their honey is being pilfered."

He laughed a deep genuine laugh for the first time in years. "_Min kjaere_, I would so love to see you covered in mud and honey! " He winked at her and she flushed prettily.

"I will require a guide in this dark realm, and you are very adept at survival here. If you will assist me, teach me the ways of this place, I will in turn lend you all the magic that I am capable of. Once I was a great sorcerer, but my powers are limited in this realm. Still, I can be of use to you." His eyes danced impishly, and she blushed again. This delighted him to no end.

"I have seen you fight; I know you can be of help to me, and so I will lend you my knowledge of this world," she replied, staring into her cup, as her cheeks returned to their normal tone. There was a demure smile playing at the corners of her lips. "You are the first living person I have seen in near twenty years, I am not sure I would be able to just let you walk back into the woods. I have not had a decent conversation in a very long time. I may have acted aloof when we first met, but I was nearly bursting at the seams with excitement. Seeing a living person…extraordinary! Besides, Stranger, I do not think you harmful to me."

"Ah, but it would be prudent of you to be wary," he said a mischievous smile on his lips. "For you have no way of knowing what my intentions are."

It was her turn to grin slyly. "Oh, but there you are wrong. There are many wards around this cottage. No one with the intent to harm me can enter here."

Loki looked around, nodding approvingly. "Clever girl! But I never said that I intended," he slowly cast his piercing green eyes back upon hers, making himself keep eye contact with her shining silver orbs, "to cause you any _harm_." He gave her the smoldering look that had once charmed so many Asgardians.

Her cheeks burned red again, and he sat back in his seat and chuckled. "I jest, my dear. You have good use of your magic as well as your aim with a bow, and that I greatly respect. Perhaps if you and I work together, we can find a way out of this wretched world."

Once again her eyes shone. He recognized the desperate hope there, for it was a feeling he himself had felt so many times. She wanted to escape…wanted it more than anything. "Yes….yes, of course."

"Have you a name?" Loki asked.

She looked startled for a moment. "I-I haven't heard my name spoken since I was seven years old," she whispered.

He nodded, understanding completely. "Perhaps then I should start the introductions. I am Loki Laufeyson."

"Loki," she whispered. "Like the god in my grandmother's books…"

He closed his eyes at the sound of his name leaving her lips, and silently begged the monster inside of him to lay still and be silent. It complied.

"Loki," she said again, louder this time.

He groaned inwardly.

"Yes, _min kjaere_?"

"Am I dead?"

His eyes flew open. "Dead?"

She ran her fingers through her long black hair. "For a while after I got here, I thought that I must have died and been sent to the Hell that some of the people in my town believe in. They said I would go there, since I was a witch, but I never believed in such a desolate place….then I came _here_." She paused and looked him in the eyes, her own wide with fear. "Is that what happened?" She whispered. "Did I die, and you have finally been sent to take me home?"

He shook his head. "Tell me your name."

She took a deep breath. "Seagen. My name is Seagen."

"Very fitting, for the name is as pretty as you," he smiled, relishing the blood that ran up her neck to her pale cheeks. "Nay, Seagen, you are not dead. You are very much alive, and our paths have crossed for a reason. You and I have a purpose, little one. Together we are burdened by _glorious_ purpose."

Seagen cocked her head at his words and let them soak in. "I like that," she breathed. "I like the idea of being burdened by something glorious."

Loki grinned, his pearly white teeth shining in the candle light. "As do I, Seagen. As do I."


	4. Chapter 4: The Sisters

_Darksome Night and Shining Moon_

_Balance of the dark and light,_

_Hearken ye our Witch's Rune,_

_As we perform our sacred rite!_

_With Earth and Water, Air and Fire,_

_By Blade and Bowl and Circle Round,_

_We come to you with our desire:_

_Let all that is hidden now be found!_

_-__**Lyrics from Witches' Rune by the amazing SJ Tucker. If you have never heard her, I must recommend it strongly! Her album Blessings is a masterpiece as far as I am concerned.**_

Loki awoke, muddled confusion setting in. Dreary light washed across him from the open shutters, and he remembered…the Stone Circle, the Keeper, _Seagen_…why was it that her name seemed so familiar to him? The answer lay just out of his grasp, like the fading memory of a dream remembered at midday. He thought on this as he stood from the chair he had fallen asleep in and stretched.

She was nowhere in the miniscule cottage, but her mark was everywhere. A kettle was again on the hearth, steaming, a smell like the coffee he remembered from Midgard filling the room. It called him awake and up on his feet. He moved across the floor languidly, stretching out his catlike body, and marveling at the feeling of magic coursing through him anew.

He felt simply splendid. Like he had not felt in many moons.

Seagen had left him fresh water in the basin. He splashed his face with it, running his hands over himself and feeling the clean spread across and through him. He had not dared to try that last night as he knew his magic was near gone. Now he felt renewed and recharged. He felt reborn purpose.

_Glorious purpose._

He was grinning wolfishly to himself as she drifted into the cabin, carrying herbs and roots in a basket. "You look happy this morning," she remarked.

"That I am as waking up surrounded in warmth instead of alone in the cold stone of my abode is pleasing to me. The beautiful smile that graces your fare face, _min kjaere_, is all an added bonus to just being alive." Loki held his hand out to her in offering, and a bouquet of exquisite flowers appeared.

Seagen set down the basket, and blushing prettily, she took the flowers from him. "What is that which you keep calling me? _Min Kjaere, _what does it mean?"

"It means, 'My Dear' in the language of the Aesir," he smiled honestly.

She returned his smile, looked again at the flowers, breathing in their exotic scent. "Intoxicating," she murmured.

"As are you, young one." He winked and then took an exuberant breath. "Is this coffee that you are making?" He asked, pointing to the hearth.

She nodded. "Mmm, sort of. It is actually Dandelion Root tea, but the taste is very similar...according to Stephan's journal. I have never had coffee."

"I had coffee on Midgard ages ago," Loki said.

"Midgard?" She asked.

"You call it Earth," he said, taking the steaming cup she was now offering him.

Seagen faltered. "What do you mean, _I _call it that?"

Loki shrugged. "That is where you hail from, is it not?"

"Of course…don't you?"

He shook his head. "There are many more realms than these. As I am finding in my…_travels_…there are more worlds than I ever knew existed. Never have I heard tales of this forsaken hell." He stared out the open door for a moment at the dim sky, lost in thought.

"Nor I," Seagen said quietly. "Where is it that you are from?"

"I was born upon a world called Jotunheim, a land of ice and snow. During a great war I was stolen from my home by a king of Asgard. It is from there that I hail."

She seemed to mull this over for a moment. "_Loki_ from _Asgard_."

The way she enunciated the words…the way she said _his _name, made him sigh. "I do love to hear the way certain vocalizations fall from your delicious lips," he whispered.

Seagen made no show of whether she heard him or not. "I do suppose that I should be shocked, but since I have no rational explanation for how I ended up here…" It was her turn to shrug. "Does it taste like coffee then?" She asked changing the subject.

Loki sipped the strong black drink. The flavor was bold, and earthy. "Actually, yes, it does. Very nice, thank you."

Seagen looked pleased, and poured herself a cup. "Would you like some breakfast? I have venison-"

"Venison? From those putrid deer that sound like a drowning goose every time they put forth the effort of movement?"

She laughed. "Ha, never! Those are Mossthrops. They are completely inedible. Their musk permeates the meat, and no amount of smoking, or drying, or seasoning will remove it. No, no, there is actually a place where game live that are eatable. I will take you there soon if you like."

"I would like that very much," he replied. "Now, about breaking our fast…"

***************************************)O(****************************************

Seagen led the way across a valley where the light actually seemed to shine a bit brighter through the clouds. She pointed out many useful plants along the way, answering any questions that he had about the denizens of the forest. Loki looked with appreciation at her backside as they climbed a steep hill…a similar appreciation that he had for her vast knowledge of this place.

She wore a sturdy dark leather corset along with vambraces, which were tooled with scrolling swirls and runes. When he asked about the lettering, she told him were from a runic alphabet that her grandmother had taught her.

"They are for strength, protection, and success in the hunt, whether that be for meat or herbs, or just finding a certain spot to… Oh! _Look_!" She pointed forward with a sweeping motion, and he looked at the plains spread below them.

The foliage here was bushier, not as scrabbly and awkward as many of the plants that grew near his fortress. The prairie grasses looked soft, waving their feathery seeded tops in a lazy breeze. Here and there, flowers dotted the landscape, and the birds that flew overhead did not scream or dive at them. They only flitted from place to place…and he was relieved to see they had only one head a piece.

On the edge of the plain was a dark forest. It seemed ominous and out of place next to the lush grasses and wildlife of the prairie, though considering what he had seen of this world, Loki figured it was probably the prairie that was out of place. Seagen pointed again, and he followed her finger to a herd of the strangest, but most ethereal looking animals he had ever seen.

Their lithe bodies were covered in pale brown hide like Midgardian deer, but it was what etched across their fur that made them exceptional. Here and there, swirling patterns of light seemed to shine out of their bodies, illuminating the dimness around them, and making them appear almost angelic. The swirls would change in tone, from a pale icy blue light to a deeper azure, and onto a lavender and violet, then back again. Their entire body was a walking Kaleidoscope of color. At once he understood where the rambling swirls on Seagen's leathers had originated.

The creatures had long elegant necks upon which sat dainty heads. Where antlers should be there were exotic feathered racks the color of rich cream, so that it looked as if they had wings protruding from their heads. Furry drooping ears swayed gently as they moved, and their large blue eyes were accented by thick curling lashes. Loki wasn't even aware that his mouth was hanging open until she laughed and touched his chin.

"You will swallow a bug," Seagen teased. "These are the Borderlands, where I come to do most of my foraging. And those," she motioned to the graceful creatures, "are Dove Deer. Or so named by Stephan in his journal. I find it an apt name."

Loki nodded. "I must agree, little one," he murmured.

She laid down on her stomach in the warm grasses and took a deep breath. "Can you _feel _the difference here? I know it is obvious to the eye, but the feeling is so much calmer. There is good magic here. I would live here if I could, but since the cottage was already there when I arrived I just spend a lot of time here."

"It is truly lovely," Loki said, sitting down and watching the deer. The soft prairie was like a sweet smelling nest. "I could almost forget about The Keeper and the masses of those infected people-"

"Undead. Zombies. They are not alive, I promise you that. That is no infection that can be cured, only evil." Her silver eyes grew steely. "There is so much death and damnation here."

Loki boldly reached forward and pushed her dark hair back from her face. "We have each other now. Combined, our powers may be enough to find a way out of this world and back to the lives that we know."

"How?" She whispered.

It might have only been his imagination, but he thought he felt her press her face into his hand just a bit more. "That I do not know, but I have been a sorcerer for a very long time, _min kjaere_. Ages in fact. I have many tricks up my sleeve."

"How many ages?"

Loki smiled. "We live much longer on Asgard than you Midgardians do. I am nearly 2000 years old by your time."

It was her turn for her mouth to fall open. "You're teasing me!"

She sounded for all the world like a young girl, and he chuckled. "I dare not tease you. I would seem very old to you, but in fact on my world, I am young."

"In comparison?"

Loki made a show of thinking deeply for a moment, looking to the sky and tapping his finger on his chin, until Seagen laughed and smacked him on the knee. "Oh, alright. I suppose I would be around 35 or so in Midgardian time."

She opened her mouth to reply, when a vibration began in the ground, and a strange eerie keening reached their ears. Loki cast a glance toward the edge of the wood and instantly threw himself over her body. Seagen grunted as his weight came down on her back and a bubble of emerald light expanded around them, just as fleet hooves came crashing down around them. The Dove Deer were fleeing, their royal heads held high. The sounds they made were almost like birds crying.

Some landed on the protective ward that Loki had cast over them. Even as he cast his eyes up to see the graceful beasts, he was incredibly aware of the nubile body under his, the curve of her rear end pressing into him…the smell of her hair in his nostrils…the scents of lavender and vanilla…By the _Gods _it had been a long time since he had felt a woman's body pressed to his own, and how he wanted to bury his face in her hair…

Loki stifled a groan and prayed that his groin behave. He did not wish to scare this one away…at least not yet.

The Dove Deer cleared the meadow and ran in a circular pattern around the edges of the forest, jumping and tossing their heads swiftly, until they finally disappeared into a hole in the forest wall. When they were gone, Loki let down the sphere and, apologizing, lifted himself from her.

"You protected me, don't apologize so!" she puffed. "My gods, what do you think spooked them? Did you see anything?"

"Just the deer stampeding," he replied. "But now that they are gone, I can see something glowing on the edge of those woods."

Seagen got up on her knees and followed his stare. The glow was warm and wavered between the trees. "That's a campfire," she murmured. "Who the hell would have a campfire? Maybe we are not the only ones here."

Loki stood and offered his hand. She took it grateful, and he eased her to her feet, not letting go as they stood toe to toe. "Our chance meeting was under some rather disturbing circumstances. Let us take this easy, not reveal ourselves right away."

His hand felt so good wrapped around hers that she did not even argue that she was no newcomer to this realm, and very well _knew _that sneaking up on the makers of the fire would be the best decision. Instead she nodded, and tingled just a bit from the slight squeeze he gave her hand before releasing her. Something in his jade green eyes told her that he registered her enjoyment, and she quickly looked away, shy once again.

"I do not know if I can cast an invisibility ward over both of us. My magic is not as strong in this dark world as it is in my realm."

Seagen rifled through her bag and brought out something that looked like the dried husks of excessively large fireflies. Loki looked at them for a moment and quirked an eyebrow at her. "The Lampyridae have so many secrets," she said in a soft voice, staring at the creatures in her palm. "I will let you in on one of them."

She squeezed her hand around the insects, crushing them, then plucked a ochre seed pod from the waving grasses next to her, and rubbed it until some fuzz on the pod began to drift in the breeze. Then with sudden gusto, she clapped her hands together, threw the dust into the air onto them both, and whispered, "_Lightfeet_."

Loki felt his skin tingle. "What did you do?"

"I made us quiet," Seagen replied. "We will make no sound. A trick very useful for night hunting."

They hunkered low in the swaying grasses and made their way to the outer trees of the forest, skirting around behind the flames. Once clear of site of anyone at the campfire, they ran, and he marveled at the silence of their footfalls. It was when they ventured inside the barrier of the ancient Oaks that Loki felt the hair on the back of his neck bristle, and he shouldered up to her.

"This place is enchanted."

"Of course," she replied. "This entire world is under some kind of spell."

"This is different. Have you ever tread here before?"

"No."

"_No?!"_

Seagen winked a silver eye at him and seemed to silently laugh, before trotting off toward the flickering campfire. They could hear cackling laughter accompanied by a crowing. She slowed to a creep, slinking through the trees, when a painful grip to her arm nearly made her yelp in pain. She spun as Loki released her from his grasp.

"What are you _doing?!" _Seagen hissed

"I know what is in there_," _he shot back. _"_We must be very careful. Those sounds, I know them, but have not heard them in many ages. Harpies."

Her glittering eyes grew almost comically wide. "_Harpies? _I have read about them in the Book, but never actually seen one."

"Aye. You said you never came to these woods. Perhaps you sensed that they lived here." Loki murmured softly as the sounds of their cawing laughter grew louder for a moment. "Harpy sisters are a force to be reckoned with."

"But their feathers contain immense power if plucked directly from their bodies_," _Seagen looked rapturous. _"_They are a fantastic find_!"_

Loki lowered his head. _"_Still we must be careful_." _

"Of course_." _She smiled a cunning little smile, and Loki felt his loins stir. There was much mischief hidden in the heart of this girl. He could practically sense a kindred spirit lurking behind her eyes.

"Stay here," Loki commanded quietly, swallowing back his growing desire. "When I need you I will call. You will know what to do."

Seagen nodded at him, and winked again. He grinned, vulpine. "You are truly an amazing creature, Seagen," he whispered wistfully as he turned away.

"Ladies!" She heard him say loudly. The cawing laughter ceased, and then turned to screeching profanities. She could not help herself, curiosity had always been a downfall of hers, and inched closer to the sounds until she could see the creatures creating such a din. They were ghastly, their mouths open wide in a scream, sharp needle like fangs protruded from black gums. They were as old women, white hair in thin tufts along wrinkled and spotted scalps, their skin a sickly color like rancid dough. Feathered wings and tails adorned them, and their squat bodies perched upon nubby legs. Their talons were sharp and menacing, glinting in the firelight. Flaccid breasts hung down from their chests, swinging as they turned quickly to keep up with the Trickster who circled them, his arms splayed wide, palms up.

The Harpies were perched upon logs in front of a vast cauldron. It steamed and boiled, mire splashing over the sides as the bubbles popped. A litter of bloody bones scattered at their hoary feet. They smelled of ancient death…

One of them screamed a string of profanities that would make a sailor blush and Loki put his palms toward them. "Ladies, please! Won't you invite a weary traveler to sit at your fire? I was drawn by the warmth of the light, and now even more drawn by your beauty. Please, may I break bread with you, my lovelies? For I am so very tired and hungrier than a great bear!" He flashed his feral toothy smile at them, and they stopped screeching, watching him with skeptical beady eyes.

"Is he a fool, Sister?" One of them croaked.

"Me thinks so," the other answered.

"Fool or not, a tasty morsel is he indeed, Sister. So sweet…so lean." The Harpy licked her cracked lips hungrily with her festering forked tongue. "It has been so long since we have feasted so! Just _look _at him…" She hissed like a snake.

Loki laughed, delighted. "Oh, you jest! Such humor, it almost matches your beauty, my darlings…almost but not quite." His eyes twinkled merrily.

One of the Harpies fluffed her moldy feathers and flapped her wings. Dust flew up around her. "Tell us more," she squawked. "Tis not often we see visitors who speak the language of the Fae…before we feast upon your entrails, tell us more about our beauty."

Loki sat down on a log across from them. "Let me tell you a story. If you still want to make a meal of me when the tale is finished, then so be it. Tis a story that my mother told me, long ago when I was but a delicate boy."

They hissed at each other for a moment, and then turned back to him. "Agreed, strange creature. But make haste. We grow restless."

He clapped his hands together, "On with it then! Once upon a time, there was a striking winged woman…not nearly as eye-catching as the two of you," he leaned forward and winked. The Harpies cackled and preened their feathers. Loki cut his eyes up into the foliage of the woods, and met with the silver orbs of Seagen. He nodded slightly. "Her name was Aello, and the Gods of all the Pantheons had given her the job of extracting punishment upon those who committed crimes by taking them to the Underworld. She was the swiftest of her sisters, and kept peace in all the worlds. But all good things in these tales, sadly do not stay so.

"Aello was sent to exact swift judgment upon a criminal who had stolen an enchanted sword from the Tuatha De Danann . His name was Promeus, and he was cunning in the ways of double talk as well as theft. He was devilishly charming, his good looks fooling many a young maiden. Though it took much more than just lies to convince Aello, she was lonely and alas, Promeus managed to use her weakness against her. He convinced Aello that if she set him free he would meet her at the World Tree that night, and that they could be together. He told her that if she drank from the stream that flowed under the tree, she would be a lovely human maiden, which was something that she secretly coveted. His words were so sweet, that she fell in love with the criminal and set him free."

Seagen crept closer to the Harpies. They were listening intently to the Mischief Maker's tale. "Aello waited for the cover of dark to fly to the World Tree. Promeus was nowhere to be found. She waited and waited, her heart growing black and bitter as the hours crept by. She glared at her stunning reflection in the water of the stream, and as the sun rose, she vowed that she would exact her revenge, and drank deeply from the water. Her intense anger caused the water to have the opposite effect, instead of becoming human, she became a vessel of hate. Her beauty changed, her peace became chaos. She was death with wings."

The Harpies, grew excited by Loki's words and began to hop up and down, bobbing this way and that. "_Yesss," _they hissed. "_Yesss, _tis a good tale, Story Crafter!"

As they jumped from one clawed foot to the other, their ancient hunched bodies gyrating, Seagen, slunk low to the ground, crawled up behind them and began to pull feathers from their tails. They were so enraptured by Loki's tale that they never even noticed as the feathers broke free into the girl's waiting grasp. She stuffed them into her leathers and backed carefully away.

"Aello burst into the air, flying as close to the Sun as she could, scanning all the Worlds and looking for the traitorous Promeus. It was his fool hardiness that was his downfall. Believing that he had duped the fair creature and escaped the Underworld, Promeus had come out of hiding to steal the Golden Chariot of Artemis. As he soared into the sky, the Sun glinted off the shining metal, flashing like a beacon which Aello saw…as did Artemis. The Goddess pointed an arrow in Promeus' direction, and just as she let it fly, Aello swooped down from the Heavens. Her judgment was swift, her talons tearing into Promeus, but the aim of Artemis was swifter. It pierced through Aello's chest, and wrapped together in death's embrace, she and Promeus fell into the ocean."

One of the Harpies screamed a protest. "So sad, so sad!" she cried. "Does that end your tale?" She cocked her warty head at Loki and flexed her talons. "_Does it_?!"

"My fair one, I am afraid that it does." He stood and bowed. "I shall be on my way-"

Without warning, one of the Sisters launched herself at him, her head down. Loki avoided her with a quick spoken charm that sent her diving into the cooking pot upon the fire. The boiling water cooked her instantly.

"Sister_! SORCERER_! You have tricked us, you have!" The other sister screeched. "You die, just like the fool in your story!" Her eyes were glowing a vibrant red, anger and death flashing in their depths. "Tell me your name, _Magician!"_

His fingers crackled with magic, blue sparks bouncing from their tips. "My name, you foul beast, is _Loki."_

The ear splitting scream that filled the air was enough to cause Seagen to cover her ears. She was watching from the bushes, her brows knitted together. For a moment she almost felt sorry for the Harpies. It had not been her intention to end their lives…

"_**LOKI**_! _**TRICKSTER**_! _**LIESMITH!**_ I _know_ you, God of Old!" The Harpy Sister was shaking with rage. She lunged at him, swifter than her sister and twice as deadly. Loki flung incantations at her, hexes flying from his hands, and though she was dead before she got to him, her talons still managed to hook his arm, tearing it open as her bulk fell on top of him. They fell to the ground, a mass of tangled limbs and feathers.

Seagen, bursting from the underbrush, wondered for a moment if his story was more of a prophecy. "Loki! My Gods, Loki!"

"Damn!" he shouted, pushing the dead bird woman off of him. He lay panting, staring at his injured arm, and willing the gaping gash to heal, to close…but it would not.

"Stop," Seagen said, falling to her knees beside him. "The Harpies carry poison in their claws. I can heal you, but we must get home."

Loki nodded feebly. His head felt heavy, his vision swam. Shakily, he rose to his feet with her help, but two steps in the direction of home and he was on his knees wretching into the dirt.

"Damn,' he murmured groggily as his vision faded to black.


	5. Chapter 5: The Harlot

_Here comes the woman,_

_With the look in her eye_

_Raised on leather, with flesh on her mind,_

_Words as weapons, sharper than knives,_

_Makes you wonder how the other half die?_

_Here comes the man,_

_With the look in his eye_

_Fed on nothing, but full of pride_

_Look at them go, look at them kick_

_Makes you wonder how the other half live?_

_The devil inside, _

_Every single one of us, the devil inside._

_-Lyrics by __**Inxs**__ from __**Devil Inside**_

_**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**_

When his eyes fluttered open, it was not the warm cottage of the Green Witch that he saw, but the dark of night. The silhouettes of trees loomed overhead; their branches seemed to stretch for him like demonic arms. He shivered and turned his head toward the crackling sounds of fire, images of angered old wretches with poison talons flashing across his fevered mind. The fire was burning under the cauldron of the Harpies, but the smell was not the putrid swamp muck that had been cooking before. Now it was sweet, simmering herbs and grasses.

Loki wanted to ask how she had managed to empty it, but as he started to lean up, a sharp pain in his arm made his vision swim once more. He groaned and clutched at his head.

"Lay back." Seagen was at his side instantly a cup in her hand. She put a rolled blanket behind him, propping his head so that he might drink the liquid in the cup. His throat was parched, his mouth dry, and the taste was like sweet fresh water. He grimaced as another pain shot up his arm. It felt heavy. Loki held it up enough that he could see that she had wrapped it in gauze. The smell told him that she had put a poultice of some kind on the wounds to draw the poison. He nodded approvingly.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Seagen smiled and smoothed the dark hair from his brow with a cool rag. "Your fever broke just before dark. Believe it or not, you are on the upside of this sickness…"

A grunt interrupted her, followed by a groan, and the snapping of branches. Loki tried to sit again, but nearly vomited from the wave of nausea that flooded his senses. Seagen placed a hand on his chest. "Stay still, Loki. I've got you."

He marveled at her as she stood and grabbed her bow and arrow from her back. She spun around to face the sounds of crashing in the underbrush, her black cape flowing out around her as she stooped in a crouching attack position. Groans began several in tandem. "I do detest zombies," she snarled. "I had hoped they would stay on the other side of the valley. But they are everywhere out here when dark falls."

Another growling moan from behind…Seagen twirled around letting fly an arrow into the darkness of the trees. There was a thud, and the sound of something heavy falling to the ground, then nothing more from that direction.

"Foul creatures," she spat. "Come on with it! Let me help you rest!"

She loosed more arrows into the wilderness, and more bodies crashed to the ground. For a moment there was peace, but they could both hear the den further into the depths of the forest. More were coming. Seagen pulled a sachet from her bag, and as Loki had seen her do before, she threw it down, spat on it, and then crushed it with her heal. The blue light vibrated around her, buzzing the air, and radiated out in a sphere around their camp.

"I fell unconscious," he mumbled. "You brought home to me, since I couldn't make it to the cottage…"

"Of course," she replied. "It was the only option too keep you safe." She sank back onto the ground beside him, and again stroked his brow, running her fingers through his long hair. "I wouldn't leave you to these soulless things. You will be well to travel by morning, but not until then. Even your magic is not enough to conquer the poison of the Harpies."

"_Min kjaere_," Loki sighed. Even through his sickness, the feeling caused by the smoothness of her hand on his skin, fingernails on his scalp, did not go unnoticed. He wanted to warn her about the effect her ministrations were having, but it just felt so damn _good_…

He looked into her face, and his breath hitched in his chest. Her silver eyes were glittering in the firelight, an impish mischief in them that he recognized. _She knew! She knew the effect she was having, and she was enjoying it as much as he…_

"_Min lille, du er en vidunderlig skapning faktisk!" _

_(My little one, you are a wondrous creature indeed!)_

His words were guttural, and she cocked her head to the side, looking at him curiously. She was about to ask what he had said, when a vast moaning seemed to surround them, and she sprang to her feet, crouching in front of him protectively. Loki pushed himself upward, ignoring the stinging pain in his arm and head. A hoard of the undead emerged from the trees, bouncing off of the protective barrier with snarls and growls. They surrounded the camp, snapping at each other like rabid dogs fighting over meat. As they banked off of the barrier over and over again, they left smears of blood and gore behind, strings of rotten pus filled flesh, liquefied viscera dripping to the forest floor.

"_**I HATE YOU**_!" Seagen suddenly screamed. "_**DAMN YOU! ALL OF YOU**_!" She paced the space of their protected camp like an incensed caged panther, stopping occasionally to slam her fists into the barrier. The creatures would cry out louder then, pressing their mangled faces and gnashing teeth against the space around her hands. Trying to bite, trying to tear her apart…

It made his blood run cold. Summoning all the strength that he could gather, Loki stood, swayed and found his balance. He slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against him.

"You should not be standing!" she sputtered. "You must rest-"

"Shhh," Loki whispered, pressing his face to the top of her head. "It is alright, Seagen. I cannot rest as long as you are in such distress."

She relaxed into his arms. "Loki, this place…it has taken a toll on my sanity. I almost went mad many times here, alone…with only these _things _to keep me company every night."

"I can only imagine the hell you must have gone through, little witch. Come, sit with me. You have taken care of me all day, now let me help you. We will talk until we sleep…use the sounds of our voices to ignore these monsters." He cast his eyes up at them, glaring a warning, but their soulless eyes registered only the food in front of them. No taunting or threat of violence would stop them. They continued to press into the force field, smudging the invisible blockade, like moths battering against a brightly lit window. Loki scowled.

Seagen helped him back to his pallet on the forest floor, and settled down with him, her face pressed into his tunic. "I ceased being afraid of them years ago," her muffled voice said. "I felt sorry for them for awhile…once living beings now forced to walk this world and eat of the living. Now, I simply loathe their existence. Sometimes at night, I hunt them, staying in the trees and picking off as many as I can, just to dispatch them to the Spirit World and decrease their numbers…but each night there are just as many. It is no use."

"You are a warrior, Seagen. I greatly admire your strength. Not many would be able to survive this place, let alone grow up here…" Loki broke off, sleep calling to him.

Movement had drained him of his energy. Still he stroked her hair as she had done for him until he realized that her breathing had changed. He smiled to himself and closed his eyes as well, drifting into a deep sleep…

And he dreamed.

*************************************)O(************************************************

_His body shook from the exertion of holding back the azure Jotun beast that lurked inside of him. He ground his teeth together and bid the monster to quiet_…_**quiet**_…_**stop this madness**__…_

_But it was all in vain. _

_Loki reached out and grabbed the young woman in front of him by the shoulder. She spun, her startled scream piercing through the night. He leered at her, a vulpine curve to the corners of his lips, as his tongue darted out to wet them. This conquest would be painful..but not for him. The thought of her writhing in pain beneath him, the crimson of her blood on the forest floor, the cries reverberating through the night coupled with his groans of ecstasy…it was nearly too much. He almost took her there if not for the sound of her voice._

"_What are you doing?" Seagen whispered. Her voice was oddly hollow. "Loki?" _

_His only reply was the reddening of his eyes. She backed away, trying to turn, but he ripped her tunic from her body, leaving her luscious form naked and shivering. Seagen cried out, her silver eyes opening wide as she registered the horror of what was about to happen. Her hands flew up to cover her breasts. _

"_Loki, NO! I trusted you!" she screamed, pulling away from him._

_He let her go, watching as her nude form ran away from him into the dark. Faintly he could hear the sounds of the undead groaning, and realized that if he wanted her then he would have to beat them to her. The chase was going to be so damn sweet. _

_Seagen's bare feet and warrior's grace made her hard to track in the stagnant night air_. _She twisted and turned, hiding behind boulders and then scurrying back into the night when he got close. Luckily for him, he had magic on his side and did not need to be a master tracker. This night he let his Jotun senses spread out, fingering across the land, licking at the air…and it was near the cottage that he found her. _

_Loki teleported to her side, and as he materialized Seagen screamed and made to run again, but he gripped her arm, holding her fast. She was panting from sheer terror, whimpering softly, and the sound was enough to cause the snarling beast within him to grow. He leaned forward and breathed deeply, sniffing her fear, and sighed. Her scent excited him, and the modest way she made to cover her nakedness amused him. _

"_I mean to have you," he whispered. "Either you can come willingly…"_

_Seagen slapped him hard across the face. "Never!" She growled angrily. The fear had left her face, and had been replaced by rage. "How dare you try to take from me what is mine to give."_

_Loki raised a hand to the welt upon his face, and without warning, struck out with all his force, causing her head to whip around with a sickening crack. She slipped limply to the ground, her body still in his grasp as he slumped with her, the horror of what he had done sinking in. His blue hands were causing her to freeze, ice forming on her skin. _

"_By Odin," he cried, his skin fading to their former pallor. "What have I done?! Is this your idea of punishment, __**Old Man**__?!" Loki screamed to the heavens, roaring like an injured animal, and as the hoard closed in, groaning and salivating, the magician did not move, only shouted his pain to Odin over and over. Even as the first rotting teeth began to close around his neck, he stayed, consigning himself to join them… _

_The last thing he saw before death claimed him was Seagen's cloudy eyes open, her neck popping as she turned her head toward him at an unnatural angle, her mouth open and coming for him._

Loki was thrashing in his sleep. Seagen opened her eyes to the moonlight coming through the gore streaked protective bubble, and rolled toward him, placing her hand in his. He squeezed, almost to the point of pain, murmuring, "Odin, Odin" over and over.

"Odin," she wondered aloud. "And Loki…you _are _him aren't you? The one from my grandmother's stories?"

Seagen was about to wake him from what seemed must be a nightmare, when she realized how still it was in the forest. The walking dead were gone, no longer beating against the blockade…yet still it was night. Slowly she stood, the hair on the back of her head tingling, her skin turning to gooseflesh. Even though the embers of the fire still glowed, and there was warmth inside their bubble, she was starting to grow very cold…which meant only one thing.

Muttering a string of profanities, she squatted next to Loki and began to shake him, careful to avoid his injured arm. "Loki, we must go. Wake up, please. We have to get the hell out of here."

His eyelids fluttered for the second time in the clearing of the Harpy Sisters, and he awoke, groggily sitting up. "Seagen? I was having a horrible dream…"

"And it is about to get much worse," she said, hastily looking back over her shoulder. "We have to go. The Keeper is coming. I should have known that he would, that the deaths of the Harpies would draw him here." She held out a hand to him, and he grasped it. "My magic would save us from him in the cottage, it has already been protected against him by Stephan. But I cannot save us here, not out in the open like this. He is too strong."

Loki stood, testing his legs. He still felt weak, but no longer shaky and nauseous from the poison. He watched with interest as Seagen touched the barrier. It seemed to actually seep back into the palms of her hands, and in a swift movement, she threw her hands towards him, causing the barrier to grow around him.

"What are you doing?" he said, moving toward her. The bubble moved with him. "What about you?"

She smiled, though it was not terribly convincing. "I will stick to the trees. He cannot climb." Seagen's breath came out in a puff of mist and a look of horror crossed her face. "Do not let the barrier go, Loki. You can if you will it away, but you will die if you do! Go, Loki! _**Run, now**_!"

"I am not leaving you!" he protested.

"The hell you aren't!" She shoved him into the forest. "Go, please! I want you to live, I need you…" she broke off, fumbling for the right words. A roar sounded in the forest as a tree fell, the sounds of something big coming fast. "Goddamit, **GO**!"

Seagen shimmied up the nearest tree using the large thorns as a ladder. Loki cast one last longing look at her and then ran as fast as his feet would take him. His magic was no good, the Harpy had weakened him too much. Not a single charm worked, and he swore as he crossed the field of the ethereal deer and crashed back into the woods on the other side, nearly becoming mired down in a bog. He could hear the sounds of The Keeper coming after him, and imagined he could almost feel the icy breath upon his neck. Further into the forest he fled; the vines hanging from the trees reached for him, and he became entangled more than once, fighting them literally with tooth and nail. As he tore free he sprinted ahead, praying to Odin that Seagen would make it back alive, that he wouldn't be separated from her now that he had found such an interesting creature….and then he _saw_ _her._

The great Circle of Stones lay ahead of him, and inside of it, glowing blue in the moonlight, stood Seagen. Not _his _Seagen, not the little Pagan of light and green witchery that he knew, but a different version of her, a dark version. Her body was bare, save for a blue black cloth that hid the apex of her sex from his sight. Her long dark hair covered her ample breasts, and as she moved toward him, coral nipples would reveal themselves long enough to give him a tantalizing look. There was a leering smile on her beautiful face, and where her silver eyes should have been were two shining black orbs. She tittered eerily, turning her back side to him, and teasingly pulling the cloth up enough for him to see the curvaceous swell of each buttock.

Loki wasn't even aware that he had crossed the threshold of the Stones, until he heard the snarling and stomping of something huge and angry just behind him. The Keeper. Unseen to his eyes, the beast stormed around the Stones as he had at the cottage, deep guttural roars piercing the night.

The false Seagen laughed again, crouching and turning, watching the beast try to find it's way in. "Old fool," she hissed spreading her arms wide, "He is _mine _tonight. Go! Find the other…"

Snorting and pawing the ground like a bull, the unseen Keeper loped away, crashing through the underbrush, taking trees down in his wake. She turned back to her prey, moving her hips seductively as she approached him. "Loki," she whispered.

"I am no fool," he murmured. "I know who you are. What you are."

"Of course you do," she replied. The cloth slipped ever so slowly to the ground, and his eyes drank in her body. Her skin shone like alabaster, so pale and silver in the full moonlight, the peaks of her creamy nipples were hard in the night air. A thatch of downy softness peaked from between the thick thighs of a huntress…

"_See me_, Loki of Olde. Does it really matter who I am? I can see how much you want the pretty white witch, it is as plain as the nose on your face, as they say," she laughed again, a haunting sound. " I can give her to you, if you only let go of this annoying little bubble" she poked at it. "Let me have you. I can show you pleasures of the flesh that you have never experienced before."

A pheromone driven war raged itself inside of him. He knew this devilish Succubus was not _his _Seagen, yet the Frost Giant that lay hidden in the depths of his secret heart cared not. That monster had wanted to ravage the mortal quim from the first moment he had laid eyes on her…to make her scream her pain, and then beg for release…to force her to scream her pleasure and then beg for death…

Rationality fled, and Loki let out the monster that had lain dormant inside of him for far too long.


	6. Chapter 6: Death, She Is A Lady

_I'm not the one whose so far away_

_When I feel the snakebite enter my veins_

_Never did I wanna be here again_

_And I don't remember why I came_

_Candles raise my desires_

_Why I'm so far away?_

_No more meaning to my life_

_No more reason to stay_

_Freezing, feeling,_

_Breathe in, Breathe in._

_I'm coming back again._

_Hazing clouds rain on my head_

_Empty thoughts feel my ears_

_Find my shade by the moonlight_

_Why my thoughts aren't so clear._

_Demons Dreaming_

_Breathe in, Breathe in_

_I'm coming back again._

_-Lyrics taken from __**Voodoo **__by __**Godsmack. **__Really awesome song, that a lot of ppl think is a heroine addiction song. He wrote it after watching the Serpent and the Rainbow, a really wicked movie about Voodoo and Witchcraft. The song has so much meaning. _

Seagen traveled stealthily through the tree tops, avoiding any mobs of undead that littered the forest floor. She came to the cottage and threw open the door, horrified to see that Loki was nowhere inside. She called for him, but received no reply. The first light was beginning to peak over the horizon and she knew that The Keeper and the Undead would all be back in their tombs, waiting for the darkness to embrace them once again, but still she worried that The Keeper might have gotten to her new found friend…and then she heard someone quietly making their way along the path.

"Loki!" she cried, as she rushed down the hill to meet him. He looked haggard, his clothes were torn and bloody, his face even paler than usual. Dark circles lined the skin under his sea glass eyes. "By the Gods, what happened to you?"

He turned eyes that were haunted upon her and she nearly recoiled. "Seagen?" He asked, his voice raspy. He looked like someone just waking from a dream…and not a good one.

"Yes, Loki." She helped him to the cottage door, and pulled some drying herbs from the rafter of the porch overhang as he shambled inside. Immediately she set to heating water, and soon the smells of chamomile, burdock root, and something rather like anise drifted through the cabin on a light breeze. He stood next to the table looking lost and forlorn, and her heart went out to him. She lit a bundle of sweet grass and wafted it slowly in front of and around his body, and he momentarily looked up at her…and then quickly away.

The tea kettle whistled, causing Loki to nearly jump out of his skin. Apologizing, she gently handed him a cup of steaming liquid, and he sipped it slowly as if he were a man drugged. "What happened to you?" she murmured. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. Reluctantly she left his side and set about heating different herbal waters to clean his wounds.

Loki flinched away slightly as Seagen reached to touch him. "It's alright," she crooned, hoping her hushed voice would calm him. "The Keeper has gone now, Loki. Tis just you and I here. If you will permit me, I can help you."

He nodded and allowed her to peel the leathers from his lean torso. She noted his sharp intake of breath as she untied the tunic. Seagen maintained eye contact, her silver eyes never leaving his pained green orbs. The fabric of the tunic was stuck in the drying blood in many places, and she apologized repeatedly as she had to reopen wounds to remove his shirt. Only then did she look away from his face, and a momentary wince passed her features when she saw the amount of deep scratches on his chest and arms. There were odd pinpricks upon his shoulders that resembled teeth marks…yet on his arm the wound from the Harpy's talons was nearly gone.

_At least there is that bit of good news, _she thought, wringing out a rag and cleaning the dirt and dried blood from his face.

"Seagen," Loki finally said. "I…I cannot remember how I got back to you…to this place."

"It is alright, Loki. All that matters is that you are here now, and that you are safe. The rest will come back to you in time." She rinsed the cloth and began to clean his arms and chest. A shiver rippled across his skin at her touch, and a low moan rose from his chest as she put ointment on his wounds. She apologized several times, but all the while kept to her task of cleaning his torso. When she reached for the laces of his pants he cried out softly, and she looked up into his lost stare once more.

"I have too," she murmured. "You're hurt, your pants are torn…there's blood, Loki."

"I," he stammered. "I-am not myself, I have not been myself." His eyes went wild and looked quickly around the room. "What has happened to me?"

"It's alright," Seagen said. "Loki, I have you. I always have you…" she broke off then, realizing that the protective barrier around him was gone. She made no mention of it, as he was already very disturbed and seemed to be near panic. Instead she untied the lacings, wincing slightly at his groan, and pulled his pants over his lean hips, making sure to avert her eyes as much as possible. She could feel her cheeks beginning to burn red…growing up from such a young age in this hostile place, the only naked men she had ever seen were dead and many were missing certain…areas. This one was very much alive, and quite possibly the most beautiful man she could ever remember seeing.

Seagen tried to not think too much on this, as she got clean water and assessed these wounds as well. The gashes had continued down his frame, though they were not as deep here, and were more scratches. His thighs were the rock hard thighs of a warrior, the muscles jumped under her fingers. Even through eyes that wanted to wander over his gods frame, she kept an air of professionalism about her movements, was able to clean and dress the cuts quickly. Through all this, Loki had kept his eyes squeezed shut, his breathing labored. She wondered was going on in his thoughts, and was deep inside her own mind when he spoke.

"I am tired. May we sleep?"

Convinced that the damage to his body was not life threatening, Seagen tossed the rag into the basin of water, and took the god by the hand. She led him to the small bed, and bid him to lie down. His eyes searched hers for a moment, as if he was looking for something there, and then he complied. Loki was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Seagen watched him sleep for a long while, listening as his breathing deepened and slowed. She got up and brewed more tea, the thought that something was very wrong nagging at the back of her mind. There was something so odd about the way he was acting, and though she attributed it to The Keeper, the wounds on his body were all wrong. The damage caused by The Keeper would have been much more extensive, if not deadly. Had they been the marks of the undead, they would already have begun to fester. The forest could be to blame, but these marks looked less like the scratches caused by running through brambles or past thorn trees, and more like the claw marks of some wild animal…but in the full moonlight they would have seen to get out of his way, wouldn't they? Or the other way around? She had seen scarcely an animal all night, what with The Keeper on the loose, most denizens of the forest were in hiding…

Her mouth fell open, and she suppressed a gasp. Grabbing her bow and quiver, she ran out of the cottage at a full tilt, heading for the Circle of Stones. It had been _a full moon_….Goddamn how could she have forgotten?! How could she have been so _foolish_?! To send him running from the cruelest creature in this world, straight into the waiting arms of the most wanton harlot in this world…the Succubus.

"_**Bitch**_!" She shouted, her voice ringing out against the ancient Stones. "Where are you? I know you are here, and I _know _what you have done! Come out and face me, let me see you, Temptress!"

She stepped into the circle and was promptly grabbed by unseen hands and sent sailing into back into a boulder. Seagen stood, trying to catch the wind that had been knocked out of her, and grabbed for an arrow, but her quiver was gone. She looked wildly around, and groaned when she saw it lying outside of the Circle. Suddenly her bow was wrenched from her body and thrown broken upon the altar in the middle of the great Stones. A cold hand pressed itself to her windpipe, raising her up in the air. The Siren was not visible to her eyes, but she was definitely there.

"Where is your precious one, now? Not here to protect you, fool girl!" The creature snarled. Seagen could feel the icy breath upon her face, smell the rancid odor of a million years of death. "_Loki_ is not what you think he is. He is no mere man, that one! Nor is he an Odinson! Laufeyson that is what he is!"

The hand clamped around her neck loosed itself, and she slid gasping to the grassy floor of the Circle. "I don't understand why you are telling me this," she managed through ragged breaths.

"Son of Odin, Son of _Laufey_!" The Succubus sounded annoyed, as if she were speaking simple truths that should be universal. "Loki Laufeyson…son of a King! A Prince of the Ice Giants…wretched cruel monsters! See, mortal, see what your beloved god has done to me!"

The inside of the Circle became black as night. Slowly a soft pale light began to illuminate the two figures standing in the center of the ancient stones. Seagen, who had begun to try to find her feet, slumped back down into the grass, her mouth agape as her mind tried to cope with what she saw. Loki stood before a demonic version of…_her_. The Siren held her arms open, beckoning him to come to her. Their mouths moved but she could not hear what was said. At first he merely stood before her, then she dropped the silken cloth that covered her revealing a body that was much too nude for Seagen's comfort…merely because it was _her _body. Her eyes fluttered toward the cloth, and she saw with horrid wonder that it changed as it hit the ground, from silken finery to a tattered moth eaten rag.

The sari wasn't the only thing that was changing...Loki too had begun to morph. His porcelain skin took on an azure tone, and raised bumps and ridges appeared along this cheeks and forehead. The Succubus was obviously not expecting this transformation, and realization seemed to cross her features. He reached for her, but she merely danced away on lithe feet. Loki's ridged brow furrowed, yet he made no move to catch her again. Warily she watched him, and made her way around the Circle, seeming to contemplate what he had become. She appeared to size him up, her black eyes running down the length of his body. He said something, holding his arms out as if to beckon her. The demon looked up at the moon, and smiled, just as Loki gripped her by the arm and pulled her into his embrace.

The Siren opened her mouth, her lips withdrawing from tidy rows of razor sharp teeth, and she lunged for his throat. Loki through a hand up in time, but she clamped down on it just the same, and he seemed to bellow out in pain, the blood trickling from his hand to the grassy floor of the circle. Everywhere that the droplets rained down, the grass curled and stretched, turning black, twining in the blood. It grew, wrapping around his ankles. He snarled his lips down at it, and tore a foot free, shoving the Succubus backward, forcing her toward the edge of the Circle. She fought hard, her body thrashing, even as it transformed from Seagen's bawdy double, into a hellishly monstrous woman with fangs and claws…and then back again.

Seagen was not sure which she found more disturbing, seeing her naked double fighting off the advances of a cobalt _blue_ Loki, or seeing the true form of the demon. He had one hand around her throat, the other was trying to pry her hands from of the massive stones. She held fast, keeping them both inside the circle. It was obvious by the harlot's face (which was Seagen's again) that she was screaming and cursing as she twisted in his grasp. One hand, still clawed, tore through his clothing and into his skin, shredding the fabric on the arms of his tunic. She pulled her legs up toward her middle, and lashed out, kicking Loki in the stomach and sending him reeling. Snarling, she flew at him, a wounded banshee, but he stopped her with a backhanded blow that split her lips open and sent her careening into one of the massive Stones. Incensed, she only came at him even harder.

Loki caught her in the air and threw the wretch into the center of the Circle. She landed hard on her back, but immediately flipped over, and on all fours began to scurry around him like an oversized spider. Her back was changing again, the backbone protruding in sharp angles like the fins of a massive fish, leathery skin drawn tight over it. The pointed peaks of her shoulders arched and jerked, and her talons tore into the dirt. Her face was a hideous mask of ancient leather and fury as she leered up at him. The blackened grasses around her curled and writhed, sentient and searching for more blood from her prey. Loki, too, was enraged, and he came at her with a speed that no mortal man could hope to possess. They careened into each other, two supernaturals in a death match, their blood spattering the ground like rain.

Seagen was almost certain that she would have heard the grasses sigh if she could hear the sounds of the memory playing out before her…

Again the Succubus was thrown to the ground. Her skin began to soften, and she curled up on herself, her body that of Seagen's again. Her shoulders shook, whether with laughter or tears was unknown. Loki advanced on her, a devilish leer stretching the corners of his azure lips. His eyes were two glowering embers, blazing red against the coldness of his complexion. Spirals and ridged bumps stood out on his forehead and cheeks, carving patterns through his skin. He stopped just behind the Siren and spoke; turned forward now Seagen she could read his lips, though she instantly wished that she could not.

"_Foolish beast! You now regret bringing me here, do you not? You think to gain my sympathy? You know what I am, yes?"_

The Succubus must have answered in the affirmative, for he said, "_Then you know you will see no mercy from me." _Loki grabbed a handful of her obsidian locks, roughly yanking her head backwards. "_This will not be pleasant, kvinnelig." (Succubus)_

An icy chill came over Seagen as she watched Loki take the demon by the shoulders and bring her up to meet his body. A strange darkness was spreading across her flesh where their skin met in veinish lines, twisting along her skin like an infection. The Siren flailed her arms and legs, kicking out at his stomach, trying to pry his hands off of her. Loki, intent on this vengeful purpose, seemed not to notice the pummeling, nor did he notice the way the grass had become vines, and wrapped itself hungrily around his legs. Seagen wanted to scream at him, to beg him to stop and warn him at the same time even though she knew that it would do no good. The Succubus writhed in his hands, swiping hands that were once again gnarled toward his face, and the Trickster's lip curled in a venomous snarl…and then the creature stopped fighting. Seagen could see enough of her face to know that she was now laughing as she wrapped her legs around Loki's waist, the vines coming swiftly to join her in capturing him.

The wildfire in the depths of his crimson eyes seemed to burn brighter for a moment as if he were accepting her challenge. His hands ran down her front, tearing at her ample breasts, then down further, fingernails digging into her thighs until rivulets of maroon began to spill to the waiting ground. It disappeared into the thirsty forest floor, and Loki greedily licked the remainder of the life fluid from his fingers. The Succubus' claws tore at his back, sharp little teeth biting at his shoulders. All the wounds on her body were soon covered by the bizarre black vines.

The God of Old recoiled, seeing them for the first time. He shuddered and pulled away, but the Succubus was held fast to him. He yelled at her, Seagen could make out, "_Call your demonic familiars back!" _Just before the back of his hand connected with her cheekbone; Seagen could almost hear the sickening _**CRACK, **_and blood splattered across the ground in crimson drops. The demon bared her blood soaked fangs at him, the red running down her face and dribbling from her chin. Black eyes bore into crimson, their breaths coming in ragged pants.

Suddenly the creature changed, a doppelganger again, and pressed her broken and bloodied lips to Loki's. For a moment he tried to recoil, but the fight was brief and his scarlet eyes slipped shut, his mouth devouring hers. She ran her fingers into his hair, their bodies grinding together, as the vines slipped around them, seeming to softly caress their bodies like a lovers fingers. Loki's hands cupped her thighs briefly, and then a bright blue light shone from around him, and her body began to freeze. She jerked away, mouth open in a silent scream. The grasses and vines turned to black glass and shattered as he violently extracted his legs from their grasp.

The tears flowed freely from Seagen's eyes, blurring her vision. She felt bile rising up into her throat, and a moment later she was doubled over, wretching onto the ground even as she tried to crawl away. Her shaking hand stretched feebly for the invisible barrier that she knew to be there, the place past the Stones where the Succubus could not reach…but an icy hand clamped down around her calf.

"No, sweet child, you will stay and watch this. And when we are done here, you will go back and kill your Prince of Frost."

Seagen swallowed hard, and stilled her tears. Her entire body was as poised and tense as a bow string ready to loose it's arrow into the heart of prey. "Fuck you, _bitch!_" She said vehemently, as her foot shot back, connecting with something that felt simultaneously brittle and hard as stone.

A foul screeching filled the air, and the Succubus began to pull her back into the Circle. Seagen's fingers dug into the dirt, leaving troughs in the ground as she fought to pull away from the awful creature, but the demon was strong…very strong.

"_LOKI!" _Seagen screamed, not expecting him to hear, but praying that me might.

She struggled against the grip of the demon, writhing on the ground. "Let go of me, you disgusting whore!"

Almost immediately, a blinding indigo light filled the spaces between the Stones. Loki seized her arm with one hand, the other sending a blast of energy into the Succubus. She squalled, letting go of Seagen, as Loki jerked her out of the Circle in one deft movement. He stood in splendor, his leathers restored, royal armor adorned his body, and a helm of golden horns sat on his head. He pulled her shaking body protectively against his own, and she gripped his armor to steady herself. He smelled of leathers and the herbs she had aided his recovery with. His chest reverberated in a proud growl, and he pointed a war staff at the Succubus.

"You will never touch her again!" His voice boomed, full of authority.

"She was almost mine, Liesmith," the demon spat. "She would have done anything I asked…she would have destroyed you, _Jotun, _and then seeing what she had done, she would have killed herself!"

Loki sent a crackling violet bolt of lightening charging across the ground, and the Succubus wailed in agony once, and then all was quiet. "Hiding in your tomb once again, are you?" He snarled, and making a cutting motion in the air, took them instantly away from the horror she had just witnessed. Seagen squeezed her eyes shut as her stomach rolled from the teleportation.

When she felt the firm ground under her feet again, she gradually opened her eyes. They were not in her cozy cottage, but in some sort of stone building. It was sparse and cold…her eyes flicked over the minimal furniture, and settled on an ornate bed. It looked out of place, and yet strangely right at home…a fact that she found unsettling. It was made of richly dark woods, fur coverlets thrown across it. Even unsettled as she was, the bed looked incredibly comfortable and inviting, in juxtaposition to the unwelcome feel of the stone house.

Loki saw her staring at the bed. "A bit of wood and moss from the swamp, and a trace of magic," he said quietly.

Seagen jumped when he spoke, and did not turn in the direction of his voice. She heard his pained sigh and then, "Your eyes have seen, little one, and now you know what I really am…it frightens you, does it not?"

She shook her head slowly. "No, Loki. I do not truly understand what you are, that is the truth. But I am not afraid."

"You have every right to fear me, every right to never want me near you again. You have seen the wrath that the Jotun side of me rails against women-"

"Enough!" She surprised herself by raising her voice. "I do not know what a Jotun or a Frost Giant _is_, Loki. Or even if the Succubus was telling me the truth. I saw what you did to her, yes…she showed me some of what happened, but she is a _Succubus_, bred for fornication and death. She would have taken your soul had you been any mortal man."

"Why did you go there?" He asked, walking around in front of her. The golden helm was gone, the armor replaced by a simple green tunic and leather breeches. He looked weary from the use of magic.

Seagen looked into his pale emerald eyes. "I went there to _kill her._ I saw the marks on your body. I knew it was her. I sent you straight to her without even realizing…I tried to save you from The Keeper and nearly lost you to the Siren's song!"

His brow furrowed. "To care for my well being is folly."

"Do not tell me that," Seagen replied. "Mischief maker you are…I didn't believe it until now, but you _are_ the one that myths were written about, aren't you? They may have gotten some of it wrong, but you are him."

Loki nodded. "That I am."

"That you are. But I see no monster in front of me."

He glared at her. "Then you truly are a fool." Turning on his heel, he walked away.

She felt panic rising up inside of her. "Don't you dare leave me! The first living person I have been able to talk to, to laugh with, to _touch_, in years is some kind of God, an alien, a _fucking blue Frost Giant! _Fine! _So be it_! That is all well and good with me. I cannot be in the company of ANYONE and go back to being with NO ONE! I would go madder than I already am! So you see, I am selfish. It is my own selfish reason that I cannot believe you do be a monster."

Loki halted, and stood, his shoulders hunched. For a moment Seagen was certain he was simply going to disappear, that this had all just been a dream, or some mirage caused by hysteria. When he finally spoke, her breath caught in her throat.

"The overuse of my powers has weakened me, Seagen." He turned toward her, his pallor no longer hiding fatigue. "I cannot even muster the want to argue with you. All I can tell you is that you are wrong. There is a demon that lives in my soul. And someday, you will meet him. Do you honestly wish that after seeing what you have seen?"

Seagen mulled over his words for a moment, and then shrugged. "I cannot go back to how things were before you came here. I will take my chances."

Loki sighed deeply and then merely nodded, the proposition of dropping their current course of conversation an agreeable one. He watched his little witch turn to the bed, staring at the overstuffed creation. He could practically feel her yearning to feel the depths of softness wrap around her aching body.

Loki recognized the wanton way she looked at his finery, and smiled gleefully, that familiar twinkle once again in his eyes. "I'm afraid I have only one place for slumber…but I do think you will agree that it is quite big enough for two."

She blushed but continued to stare lustfully at the bed. It looked positively royal, a decadent and sinful delight. It looked as if it would feel…like him. She turned a deeper crimson.

"Ah there is the rosy face of my Green Witch that I have come to relish," He purred mischievously.

"And there's my Loki." Was her pleased reply.

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Translation: kvinnelig=Succubus/Demon


	7. Chapter 7: Despair and Lust

_Hey there Little Red Riding Hood,_

_You sure are looking good._

_You're everything a big bad wolf _

_Could want._

_Listen to me, Little Red Riding Hood,_

_I don't think little big girls should_

_Go walking in these spooky old woods alone._

_Oh, What big eyes you have,_

_The kind that drive big wolves mad._

_So just to see that you don't get chased,_

_I think I ought to walk with you for a ways. _

_What full lips you have,_

_They're sure to lure someone bad._

_So until you get to grandma's place,_

_I think you ought to walk with me and be safe._

_I gonna keep my sheep suit on,_

_Until I'm sure that you've been shown_

_That I can be trusted walking with you alone._

_Oh, Little Red Riding Hood,_

_I'd like to hold you if I could,_

_But you might think I'm a big bad wolf so I won't._

_Oh, What a big heart I have,_

_The better to love you with. _

_Little Red Riding hood, _

_Even bad wolves can be good._

_I'll try to be satisfied,_

_Just to walk close by your side._

_Maybe you'll see things my way,_

_Before we get to grandma's place_

_Little Red Riding Hood,_

_You sure are looking good._

_You're everything _

_That a big bad wolf could want. _

_-Lyrics are from __**Red Riding Hood **__by __**Sam the Sham. Amanda Seyfried **__does an rendition of this song that is so haunting it will make you fall in love with her. Very soulful…check it out on YouTube. I find the lyrics very fitting for this story. _

_**Merry Meet ! **__I am super happy to see new followers. It's almost Yule, so __**Happy Yule **__to any fellow pagans who are reading! )O( And if you aren't pagan, then __**Merry Almost Christmas**__! We celebrate both in our house. Blessings, and btw, __**Reviews**__ are welcome and encouraged. Please, tell me what you all think, even if it is a critique of how I can improve. I always appreciate the reviews, as they help me along with a story and I have had reviewers who pointed out things that I did not even realize that I was doing and helped me so much. Please no flames. _

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

The bed was the most decadent thing she had ever felt. Try as she might, Seagen couldn't keep the groan from escaping her lips as she fell back into the plush blankets. Embarrassed, she slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes guilty. Loki laughed, delighted that her vocal chords had just betrayed her, and ducked as a pillow hurtled toward his head.

He sprang onto the bed, flopping onto his stomach beside her, a movement that made him seem impish and young, a boy in this world of thorns. It made her heart ache for a moment; the thought of both their childhoods lost…his many _many _years ago. Hers wasted in this world.

"What troubles your mind, _mitt kjaeledyr?_" _(My pet)_

She broke from her revelry, not bothering to ask him what he had just called her. Her body felt heavy, the sweetness of the pelts wrapping around her like a lover's touch. It made her shiver, and he looked questioningly at her.

"I was just thinking about growing up," she murmured, closing her eyes. "But I am tired now and no longer wish to talk."

Loki smirked. _"Were you now?" _He thought. "The bed feels wonderful, does it not?"

"You want me to pride you on your bed making skills?"

"I can assure you that _making _the bed is the least of my talents in this venue, my darling."

Seagen chose to keep her lids closed. She wasn't sure she could take what was certain to be a lustful look without bursting into either fits of groggy laughter, or swooning, and chose not to see which would happen. Instead she smiled, sleepily, and rolled over, snuggling down into the blankets. "Go to sleep, Loki."

His deep chuckle was nearly in her ear. Seagen shivered again, biting back a gasp as the hairs on the back of her neck prickled with the heat from his breath, and the sounds of his next words.

"_Resten na, Darling. Vi har mye tid foran oss for a utforske hver other's…sinn."_

_(Rest now, Darling. We have much time ahead of us to explore each other's…minds.)_

Seagen had no idea what he had said (and from the licentious sound of his husky voice, she dared not ask). His body was incredibly close, she could feel the warmth of him radiating through the sheets…and then he was gone from her side, curled onto the other side of the bed, giving her the space he knew she desired.

She mentally thanked the gods for that.

Darkness swallowed them both in slumber. Her dreams were full of nights spent with her parents in front of a roaring fire, eating her mother's cooking, telling each other made up stories of goblins and heroes. His dreams were none so kind. Loki dreamed of growing up with Thor, watching as his fair haired brother became the strongest of the pair, the one sought out by noble bred girls, the one that always had a tale to tell around the table. He dreamed of the night he and Thor as well as their companions traveled to Jotunheim, the night that Thor was banished and Loki found out just what and _who _he was. Only in this dream, instead of simply screaming at his father in rage and anguish,..

"_How? How could you do this? I loved you, Father. I only ever wanted to please you, to show you that intellect could rule this kingdom over brawn. I wanted to be a worthy heir! But you would never let that happen!" Loki looked down at the Tesseract in his hands, and saw that it had become a long bladed scepter. "I am a monster! You could never let a mindless beast rule over your kingdom!"_

_Odin took a step forward. "No, Loki. You are my son-"_

"_Enough!" Loki snarled, the madness of what he truly was seeping into his core. "For years the only stories that I ever heard about the Jotunheim were of what foul and treacherous creatures lived there. Slow, stupid, horribly scarred…beasts with nothing more on their minds then fornication and blood lust! Is this what I am? Is this what you would have as your son?!"_

_Odin put his hands up, a gesture meant to calm his outraged adopted son, whose eyes had once again began to burn crimson, and whose skin had become azure. The movement only sent Loki further into a rage, and before he knew what had happened, Odin was slipping to the cold stone floor of the vaults, his hands wrapped around the scepters blade. Blood poured forth from where his heart had been pierced. _

_Loki fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "Father…what have I done?"_

"_Loki," Odin whispered. "My son…"_

Loki tore at the sheets wrapped around his body, throwing the covers back. The cool air of night hit him as he sat up and ripped the sweat soaked tunic from his body, certain that it was covered in the blood of his father…

He looked at his hands, momentarily disoriented. This place had a way of doing that, it seemed. He exhaled a mighty breath, and was about to fall back into the blankets when he became aware of a pressure on his thigh…a feminine hand. Seagen was touching him, her pupils blown wide.

"I saw you," she whispered. "I saw your dream." There was horror written in her features. "I don't know how, but…Loki, is that why you are _here_?"

Loki's mouth fell open, and for a long drawn out minute that seemed to him to stretch into a silence of forever, no sound emerged. Finally Seagen removed her hand from his leg, and left the bed, to prod at the fire with a poker.

He cleared his throat. "There is no need to do that," he murmured softly to her. The fire blazed in the hearth, and fresh heat washed over the room.

"Odin is very much alive," he said. He had come to stand next to her, to warm bones that were chilled by the dream…as no doubt was hers. "That part of the dream was the product of my own anger, I believe. Everything else that you saw up until then was true."

"Your father lied to you about who you are?" Seagen's eyes looked pained as Loki nodded.

"Odin told me that it was for my own good to not know what I was. I was a runt, left to die, and Odin spared me from a death fit for no infant. Yet he spoke also of bringing our worlds together. I was the sone of the King of Jotunheim, Laufey, stolen by the King of Asgard, Odin. A mere pawn in realms at war." He rubbed at his face. "I know not if he truly came to love me as his son. All those days spent trying to be like Thor and yet still be myself, all those nights spent sleepless worrying that I was not enough, and all because I was not even an Aesir. Not truly."

Seagen's throat felt tight as she watched his face in the firelight, from determined to sad to merely tired….Loki's pain was palpable. She began to trace the slow comforting spirals on his back, lightly with the tips of her fingers. "I cannot imagine that hurt, Loki. It is horrible to even think of not knowing if a parent loves you. I always knew love, yet my parents did not tell me who I was either."

His eyes questioned. She sighed. "I suppose they meant well. They kept me in a bubble of blissful ignorance. Though my grandmother tried to tell me that there would be people who would not understand…she never told me there were people who would vehemently hate our kind. We were a family of witches, and yet they let me believe that we were _normal_…they protected me from the hate of the townspeople…the hate that fear breeds. Sometimes I look back on those days and try to remember, did I think we were normal because I thought that all others were magickal like us, or because I thought we were just the same as everyone else? Just the same, when my family was dead, there was no one to protect me."

"I did," Loki murmured.

Seagen pulled her hand back as if burned. "What did you just say?" she whispered.

Loki looked guiltily at her, and then cast his eyes to the fire, unable to stand the confusion in her gaze any longer. "In my time as a Prince of Asgard, I would grow… restless. There were many things to interest me in my youth, but as I aged, those things became trite. Mundane. Midgard was a foreign land, something that I wished to explore.

"I was schooled in magic, where my brother was not, as his ways were of brute force, of war. My ways were the ways of the mind. So, I found a way to escape to your world with magic, and not use the Bifrost of Asgard," he paused knowing she would not know what it was that he spoke of. "It is a source of energy and a portal to the worlds. We can travel anywhere in the Universe with the BiFrost, but there is a Guardian who makes sure that all travel is approved by the palace. And so, when I found that I could conjure my own portals, I would come to your Earth and explore it."

He ran a hand through his ebony hair. "I was in the woods the night that when a raven haired child ran out into the bitter cold, screaming and wailing. I thought that perhaps that girl had either gone mad or was frightened of something…I had decided to have a bit of fun. I changed my form. It was a secret that I had recently unlocked and I was very much excited at the prospect of using my new power. I transformed into a massive black hound. The plan was to frighten you further, you see, or perhaps speak to you if you were mad…I have had many an interesting conversation with insane Midgardians.

"When I found you, Seagen, shivering and curled up under that tree, and saw what a fragile girl you were, I could do naught but sit down with you. There were tears freezing on your cheeks, and snow settling on your body. You looked like an innocent lost princess, an Ice Princess," Loki paused and laughed softly at the irony of that statement before continuing. "To make matters even worse you kept whimpering for your parents. Well, my dear, I am a _Trickster, _but even I am not so evil…or I was not then. I stayed with you until the men and women came and drove me away."

Tears were streaming from Seagen's eyes. She tried to turn away from him, but he pulled her into his arms, his embrace strong.

"You asked me if I was here because I killed my father," he whispered into her hair. "No, I am not. I am here because not long after I had to leave you in the forest, many things happened, and the realization of what I was drove me mad. I tried to take over your world, Seagen. I killed many of your kind in my haste to prove to Odin that I was fit to rule. I made many enemies. _That_ is why I am here."

"They are not _my _kind," she spat. The venom in her voice made his eyes widen, and his heart feel as if it had just skipped a beat. His arms still wrapped around her, the God of Mischief and Magic looked into her eyes and nearly moaned at the hate he saw breeding there.

"My little one…"

"They will never be my kind," she said quietly. "I do not know how, but they sent me here to die. I was a _child, _and they called me awful names. A bitch of the Devil, Satan's spawn, Demon, Witch, just to name a few, and then they put in a horrid institution. They did terrible things to me in that place." She shivered. "I am a Witch, not welcome in their world. This place is where I grew up, with no need of them."

Loki pulled her tightly against his chest. "My Jotun form can do you so much more damage then mere mortals did. Can you not see why it is folly not to fear me?"

Her hands pressed against his firm flesh, but he held her fast. "You tell me that I should fear you, as if to push me away," she finally managed to say, muffled as she was against him. "And yet you hold me in your arms, whether to comfort me, to keep me from running, I don't know which. I do know that I do not fear you. I couldn't fear someone who has saved me more than once."

Loki sighed. This girl was such a puzzle, but moreso was he. Seagen was right, he wanted to push her away and pull her closer all at the same time. Why must he do this to anyone that he even remotely cared for…

Care?

He quite suddenly placed his hands on either side of her face, cupping her cheeks and turning her eyes up to meet his. The haunted silvery hue nearly took his breath away. When he hastily placed his lips to hers, he did so with no second thoughts, no doubts. Seagen sighed at the sudden softness of the chaste kiss, the feeling of his warm body close to hers, his defined muscle humming under her fingers, and the sound of both their heartbeats in her ears. He pulled back and looked at her with wonder. Never had a single soft kiss ever caused such a deep longing inside of him. She felt so damn…_familiar_.

"That…that's the first time I have ever been kissed," she whispered.

Loki nodded, realizing that there were many things a girl who had grown up alone in a world with no other living people, had _never done_. The beast inside of his purred with sadistic glee, but he kept a straight face, and told the monster to still itself.

The giant acquiesced, the dark thoughts retreating to a far away place in his mind.

His thumbs stroked at her flushed cheeks. "Then let me show you what it is to truly be kissed, little one," he said softly.

One hand slid gently up into her hair, the other down onto her hip. He pulled her tightly too him, his green eyes burning into hers. She lost herself in them, drowning in their emerald depths…a quiet whimper escaping her throat. When his lips found hers, smooth and warm, softly sucking at her bottom lip, she gasped, and when he bid her lips to open to his waiting mouth, Seagen complied almost immediately. His hand wrapped itself in her hair, pulling gently, and she moaned at the onslaught of sensation. Loki's tongue sensually slid over hers, twining around it lazily at first. He deepened the kiss, pressing into her body with his own, and she found herself wanting him to be more forceful, more demanding, and to intensify their embrace into something…_deeper. _

A warmth spread in her abdomen, a spiraling tingling force finding its way into the apex between her legs. She ran her hands up his shoulders and into his hair, feeling the silken strands between her digits. Touching another person, a _man_…it was almost surreal. Seagen had thought herself to be alone in this dark world forever, to never know what it was like to be loved by someone other than her family…and even that was such a distant memory that sometimes she had to strive to remember. The thought of never knowing a lovers touch, knowing that there was something she was missing, needing, but not quite what it was…it had been a thought which kept her awake many nights. It was a miracle that he was here…

And yet, _how_ was it that he was here? How was it that they were the _only_ two people in the last near twenty years to be sent here, sent to this prison…and from two different worlds, no less? In Stephan's journal, he had never once mentioned another human being during his time in the Other World. Doubt began to drive its wedge. She bid it to be still, to leave her alone and let her enjoy this embrace.

Doubt acquiesced, and tucked itself away into a far corner of her heart.

Seagen relaxed and let Loki take control. For once, in her life in this hell, she would let someone else take the reigns of her life and steer.

Loki felt it. He felt her walls crumble, her will bend to his, as she let him take over and lead her. A growl rolled up from his chest, so soft as to almost be a purr, and the hand in her hair fisted, pulling harder. She gasped against his lips, and he broke their kiss.

"_Jeg trenger deg, lile. Jeg trenger alle dere, som aldri har jeg trengte noe eller noen andre! Gi deg selv til meg," _he said, his voice husky with lust.

Seagen's eyes were dilated. She felt heady. "What did you say?" she whispered.

Loki's lips curled up in a devilish smile. "I said that I need you, little one. I need _all _of you, as I have never needed anything or anyone else." He leaned forward and whispered into her ear. "Give yourself to me."

She moaned. "Loki…"

He pulled back and looked into her eyes. "Will you? Seagen, will you give yourself to me?"

She nodded. Her head felt heavy as if in a dream.

"Say it," Loki commanded.

"I will," she murmured.

"Will what?!"

The sharp edge to his voice, a dangerous edge, snapped her attention back to him and away from how marvelous her tingling body was feeling. His eyes glittered in the firelight, and she faltered, feeling momentarily disoriented and wary. There was a primal darkness in his eyes, a flicker of a beast lurking inside. However, it was brief and soon replaced by despair.

"Seagen-"

"I will," she interrupted. "I will give myself to you. All of me is yours, Loki."

His eyes snapped shut and his head fell back, silky black hair falling about his bare shoulders. There was something like ecstasy written about his features, and a low groan escaped his throat.

"Thank you," his hissed.

Seagen shivered. There was so much base need in those two words, so much primal hunger. And yet what she heard most was the anguish. As his lips crashed back down onto hers she thought that she felt his skin briefly grow cool and firm.

Then all else ceased to matter.

_A/N: Next chapter will be rated M. _


	8. Chapter 8: Drowning in Fire

_Lay where you're laying,  
_

_Don't make a sound._

_I know they're watching, they're watching_

_All the commotion, the kiddie play_

_Has people talking, talking._

_You, your sex is on fire_

_The dark of the alley, _

_The breaking of day_

_The head while I'm driving, I'm driving_

_Soft lips are open, knuckles are pale_

_Feels like you're dying, you're dying._

_You, your sex is on fire_

_Consumed with the words to transpire._

_Hot as a fever, rattling bones_

_I could just taste it, taste it_

_If it's not forever, if it's just tonight_

_Oh, it's still the greatest, the greatest,_

_The greatest._

_You, your sex is on fire._

_-Lyrics from __**Sex on Fire **__by __**Kings of Leon. **__One of my all time favorite songs. I just love lyrics, music, the way songs can conceal or reveal so much. _

_This chapter is going to be an odd one…just bare with me. Sexual situations contained within…and when it comes to sex, I don't mince words. Mature readers only, please._

Outside the darkness of night swallowed the land of the dead. The soulless den of the hoards could be heard echoing off the walls of Loki's fortress as they shuffled through the night, ever closer to the life they knew resided there. The living meat called to them, the heartbeats of two who were not yet Undead pounded a tattoo against their rotting ear drums.

Inside those thick walls, the presence of the dead went unnoticed. Loki held Seagen in a tight embrace, his lips bruising hers from the ferocity of his kiss. The fire in the hearth once again flared up, as if in tune with his emotions, with the fire that burned inside his soul. He slid his hands down her back, clutching her plump backside in his grasp, squeezing until she cried out. Slender fingers traced across his taunt chest, over hardened nipples, moaning simply at the feel of his alabaster skin and the muscles underneath. Loki growled low, and ran his hands under her shift, slipping, sliding over silky flesh, pausing only to pull the soft cotton off of her body.

He stood back, drinking in her nakedness. For a moment Seagen felt very fragile under his gaze. Stripped of her leathers and under clothes, it was as if he had torn the warrior Goddess straight from her form. Her hands twitched, aching to cover herself up, but looking up into his face, seeing the way his lips pouted from kissing her, they way they parted slightly, and the look of appreciation in his gaze, all doubt fell away. She had never known such lust as this…this desire burning in the intensity of his emerald eyes.

She felt a different Goddess stirring within. One of Hedonistic pleasure…this Goddess called to her with a sagacious melody that only she heard…

Loki drank in her voluptuous form from head to toe. He watched her hands come up slightly, and smiled smugly at her desire to cover herself. That smile faded into a low groan of desire as he watched the lithe fingers caress her breasts instead, then fall limply to her side. Submissively. The anxiety had momentarily left her face, and she was beautiful in her nakedness. Beautiful in her _openness_. Charcoal hair fell about her shoulders, but it did not cover this Seagen's breasts. _His_ Seagen. The luxurious globes remained bare to him, full and heavy, the nipples erect. The silky skin of her stomach begged to be kissed, as did the mound past her ample hips. Suddenly he grabbed her and lifted her up, reveling in her surprised gasp. Throwing her archer's thighs around his own waist, he growled and kissed her again. His lips slid to her ear, where he whispered things that should have made her blush, but instead made her whimper. The hot rush of her need washed over him, slicking his cock, and it took all restraint that the god had to not press himself inside of her right then.

Loki took a deep breath and shuddered, feeling the heat of her cunt against his hard length. He pulled one taunt nipple into his mouth and flicked it with his tongue, biting and sucking, as he carried her to the bed and laid her down upon it. Crouching over her, he took her other breast in his hand, kneading and tugging at its ripe firmness. Seagen cried out and arched her back, affording him just the angle that he needed…

"Little one, you are so very wet," he murmured, dipping is fingers into her heat. She squirmed and dug her fingernails into his back, a look of fear crossing her features.

"Ah," he smiled in a way he hoped was more reassuring than wolfish, "I will be sure that you are ready. Trust me?"

"I thought you said that I should fear you?" She said teasingly. The slow circles that he had begun to trace around her clit dissipated her worry.

"Fear me," he murmured. "But trust me as well."

His fingers sped up, rubbing and flicking the nub at the apex of her sex, and when he suddenly slid to his knees and took that hard bundle of nerves between his lips, she screamed and arched up until her back was bent as a bow upon the bed. He pushed her thighs back, spreading her wide and marveled as she opened up before him like a flower getting its first taste of rain after a drought. Moaning, he drank her in, tasting her sweetness, pressing his tongue into her waiting heat.

"Loki!" Seagen wailed. She felt as if she were on the edge of some precipice and dangerously close to falling over. Her hands fisted in his hair, as he continued to skillfully lick and suck his way to the very core of her pleasure.

When he pressed a finger into her she bucked up against it. His brow furrowed together for a moment, but he said nothing and slowly slid another finger into her, curling them forward. If she had thought that he had found her core before she was wrong, because _now, Oh sweet heavenly Gods and Goddesses, _she felt her world falling apart around her. Loki leaned forward, pairing slow licks and suckling with the ministrations of his fingers. He moaned against her sex, the slight vibrations causing her buck again. Seagen screamed, uninhibited, and fucked his mouth and long slender digits like a creature gone wild...gone mad with need.

Loki relished the sounds of her screams…a den that he had not had to wring from her body with pain. He drank her cum, the sweet juice pouring forth into his eagerly awaiting mouth as she called out his name over and over, her inner walls clenching around him. When finally she had fallen exhausted back into the blankets, Loki pulled his fingers from her sex, and she watched through lidded eyes as he sucked her juices from them with a delighted look upon his face.

"So decadent," he murmured, climbing up onto the bed to crouch, (suddenly nude and _very _erect) between her legs. "Finer than any mead I have ever had the chance to partake."

Seagen would have blushed again, but she was too busy marveling at just how big his member was. It was incredibly engorged, and pulsed with blood, bouncing slightly against his hard abdomen. She bit at her lips, and looked in his eyes.

"Are you ready?" Loki whispered.

She nodded.

"Are you afraid?"

Once again she answered in the affirmative.

"Say it, Seagen." It was not quite a spoken demand, and yet she recognized it for the command that it was. "Tell me that you fear this pain, and yet you long for me to fuck you."

A rosy blush crept across her high cheekbones, and he delighted in it. "I am so very afraid, Loki," she said in a husky hushed voice. He moaned aloud, his hand moving to grasp his hardness. The sight of him slowly sliding his hand up and down a cock that seemed impossibly hard thrilled her. "Oh, Loki," she whispered. "I…I'm ready for you to take me. I _want _you too. Please, _please_, fuck me."

"Dear sweet _lite jentebarn _(girl)," he growled, leaning down and taking her ear lobe into his mouth to suckle, and a firm breast into his skillful hand. "You will be the undoing of me."

"I hope to be," she moaned. "Oh, Loki, please. I need you." Truly, she seemed to ache so badly that it hurt deep inside.

He snarled. There was no other word for the beastly sound that left his mouth. "Seagen…" His cock slid inside of her waiting heat. He tried desperately to hold back, to give her the time that she needed to adjust to his girth, but the way her walls clenched around him…

He slid deep within her cunt in one swift movement. Seagen tossed her head back into the lushness of the bed and screamed her pain for the entire world to hear. Outside, the Other World did just _that. _The dead raised their wretched heads and with renewed vigor, the swarms pressed forward toward the sound of a meal calling.

Being inside of her was like ambrosia. It had been so long since he, Aesir Loki, had felt such sadistic glee inside of a woman. Her cunt was tight and wet, and she clenched around his member so perfectly, that it was nearly too much. He tossed his head back, and seated deeply inside of her, he stopped and merely _felt _her, the supple skin, the heat…she was like an Asgardian Spring, sweet and warm, and yielding. Loki growled furiously, that single thought of a home that he would never see again, driving him swiftly back out of her. He slammed back into her pulsing quim to the hilt, and pumped roughly in and out of her until she was screaming his name, both in pain _and_ in pleasure. It was the perfect mix, the two sounds that he loved most from the creature he lusted after most. This delicious woman should be crying for him to stop, pounding her fists against his chest and pushing him away, but instead she was digging her nails into his back and urging him on.

"_LOKI!" _She cried out.

He pressed his mouth to her ear. "That's it, my pet. Can you feel me tearing you apart?" His voice was deep with the intoxicated husk of his own pleasure.

"Y-yes," she hissed.

"And do you wish me to continue?"

"Ah, Gods, yes, please!"

"Good girl." Loki leaned back on his haunches, sitting up before her, and sinking his fingers into the smooth skin of her hips, he began to pull her onto his length spearing her over and over again.

Seagen watched his face, through tear filled eyes. Never had anyone made her feel so complete, so full, and yet it was all so surreal. The mix of dulling pain, and heated pleasure seemed to be the best thing she had ever felt in her life. He was watching her with such an intense stare, his eyes glittering in the firelight, and lust written in the furrow of his brow, the way he clenched his teeth together, the corners of his mouth pulled back into a silent snarl. He was the most beautiful person she had ever seen, and in that moment, the most primal. The tears spilled over, rushing from wide silver eyes, down her cheeks, and her cries became guttural.

Loki's eyes roamed over her body. He saw the way she was watching him, wide eyed, in lustful awe…the way her breasts bounced with each and every thrust. He looked further down to where heir bodies were joined together, and marveled at her perfect pink quim, so swollen from the beating she was taking. Not able to tear his eyes away, Loki slowed his pace, grunting as he slipped all the way into her in one stroke, then slowly sliding back out. She was so slick, so damned _tight_ and hot, that just watching his cock ease in and out, shining from her juices and his own pre-cum, that he felt as if he was loosing his mind.

"I have not had a woman in so very long," he whispered. "Oh, Seagen, my luscious girl…Seagen…_Seagen_…"

Loki repeated her name as he felt her walls begin to clench around him. He could smell her musk changing, knew that she was coming closer and closer to orgasm. She screamed out his name…just as the massive throng of zombie walkers pressed into the heavy door of the fortress. Faintly she could hear their collective growls and groans, as well as the wood of the door creaking.

Neither of the lovers cared. Loki had tossed his head back, throwing his arms open wide as the first ripple of his orgasm began. His balls drew upward, his cock tensed, and he cried out, a deep moan of pleasure, thrusting forward as Seagen's cunt tightened around him to the point of being painful. Tears still leaked from her eyes, and she felt him begin to spasm and spill inside of her. He fell forward, planting his hands on each side of her head, panting and still murmuring her name, feeling her cum, watching as her body arched with an intense wave of orgasm. She screamed one last time, wrapping her shaking legs around his waist for the leverage that would properly keep her from falling off the edge of this wicked world, and Loki collapsed on top of her, fingers digging into the softness of the bed. Her own were tangled in his sweat drenched hair.

They lay that way for a long moment, until the noises of the dead at the door could no longer be ignored. Loki withdrew from her slowly, looking at where their bodies separated and frowning slightly once again. He turned toward the door and muttering something in the language of the Aesir, he cast another ward. The din of the masses continued, but the creaking of the door eased considerably.

He sat back on the bed and looked thoughtfully at her.

Seagen rolled over onto her side and met his gaze. "What troubles you?" she asked, her voice hoarse from screaming.

"This may be a delicate and inopportune time to bring this up, but…" he paused, seeming to roll the words around in his mind before simply saying, "You were not a virgin."

Seagen's full lips opened and closed twice before she finally replied, "Do you remember when I told you that I did not want to talk about meeting The Keeper."

Loki nodded, his mouth suddenly going dry. "Yes," he whispered.

She sat up and turned her back to him. "Might it make you not want me anymore, if you knew the truth?"

"Seagen," Loki murmured, clearing the husk from his voice. "You did not reject me, even after you saw the Frost Giant monster that I am. I will return you the same favor."

The firelight flickered around her silhouette. When she turned back to him, her eyes were haunted once again, their depths the steely color of a stormy sky. "Loki, He took what was mine to give."

Remembering his dream, Loki shuddered, an action that she misread as disgust. "You are sickened."

"No!" Loki cried, reaching for her. "You misunderstand! Please, tell me what happened."

Just then, a roar outside the walls of his lair silenced everything around it.

"Oh, Gods," Seagen moaned. "He's here. I think He has marked me…He always seems to know where I am on this fucking rock."

The door bowed again. "Loki, your wards are not working on Him the way the herbs and incantations do…and I don't have anything with me! The book said it has to be done just so," The door creaked louder. "He's going to break down the damn door!"

Loki stood and crossed the floor, his armor materializing on him in a shimmering golden light of horns and flowing capes. He held his head high, a regal scepter in his hand. In the middle of the room he stopped, fury flashing in his eyes. This Thing, whatever the Hel it was, had taken the girlhood of what was now _HIS. _Silently he willed his wards to come down.

Seagen was scrambling around behind him, throwing on her shift and leathers. She crouched down, her bow at the ready and quietly cursed being ill prepared in the face of the Demon. Letting her emotions get in the way and get the best of her had been a habit she had left behind with childhood…

When the door exploded she nearly screamed and ran. Wood splintered and blew back into the room, chunks of ebony hurtling toward them both, only to be thwarted by a green energy shield. Both warriors held their ground, teeth clenched, anger over the same crime driving them to kill. The screech that filled the room was deafening; the chill that followed made them grit their teeth even more. Somewhere behind them the hearth fire roared, the torches on the wall blazing to life. A screech of pain filled rage echoed off the stone walls.

"He hates light!" Seagen yelled over the din.

Loki grinned sadistically. "Then I better turn them down."

"_What_?!"

The torches died down. "Loki, what the hell are you doing?" Seagen cried just as a massive beast pressed its way into the room, bowing the door frame out around it. The Keeper came in head down low, snorting like an angered bull. Two huge horns protruded from the front of a flat and wide head that He shook vehemently at them. As He raised His head, Seagen recoiled, her wide silver eyes meeting with His single black orb. He had slits where His nose should have been, above a widened mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Once clear of the door frame, the Keeper stood upright on two large muscled legs, each as big as a tree trunk. His girth was impressive, wide shoulders covered in dirty russet fur gave way to arms clothed in ancient armor, and ended with claws of black so shining that it looked blue in the light.

"Aren't you an odd mix?" Loki spat. "Cyclops. Giant. Minotaur…How quaint." He brandished his scepter, his lips pulling back in a vulpine grin. "On with it half breed!"

The Keeper's own rubbery lips retracted in a sickening smile, yellow teeth dripped with saliva. "Half-Breed?" A deep gravely voice rumbled out of His chest. "Prince of Ice, _you _would know much about that!" His laugh bounced off the stone walls.

"It speaks!" Loki shouted, amused. "Here all this time I thought you were simply a dull animal!"

"Tis not I who is the Frost Giant," The Keeper replied, his grin growing larger. He spied Seagen again. "Now there is my pretty human. I knew I smelled you." He lifted his flat nose to the ceiling and sniffed. "Ahh."

Her fingers twitched on the bowstring. _Not yet. Not yet…._

"Go to Hell," She hissed.

"Now, now," the rumbling voice spoke. "You do not believe in Hell." He winked…or blinked. She wasn't certain.

Loki growled. "Enough of this." He slammed the base of his staff into the floor, a blaze of green and blue light speeding out toward the massive beast, knocking Him off of His hooves. A roar so loud that Seagen had to cover her ears actually shook the room. The Keeper was changing, His clawed hands becoming paws with razored talons. He stood, now on four legs, head down and pawing at the floor as enraged as a bull in a Matador's arena.

"Now, that is an interesting development," Loki murmured, just as The Keeper charged.


End file.
